Not only is Sarah Palin going to avoid potentially unfriendly interviewers as part of her book blitz - she’s going to avoid potentially unfriendly towns:
Sarah Palin’s book tour is a gift for her base.
No stops are planned in Seattle, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Los Angeles and other major cities and book-buying communities that are standard for authors on the road, but where the voters tend to be Democrats.
Beyond a Nov. 16 television interview with Oprah Winfrey, nothing is scheduled for Chicago. New York will feature media appearances only. Instead, the itinerary for Palin, whose “Going Rogue” comes out Nov. 17, includes Noblesville, Ind.; Washington, Pa.; and Rochester, N.Y.
“She wants to be unconventional. She is unconventional,” HarperCollins spokeswoman Tina Andreadis said Wednesday. “She feels like this is where her fans are and Harper feels this is where she’ll sell the most books.”
This is all part of the perpetual debate/war between rural and urban America, something that’s been going on almost since the country’s founding. Urban types see themselves as worldly and see rural types as bumpkins. Rural types see urban types as condescending and sinful and out of touch with “real” America.
Rural Americans have always considered themselves “real” Americans. Always. But the reality is they never had a lock on what it meant to be an American; the guy in south Philly or the Bronx or Pittsburgh’s Northside has every much a right to “America,” and to define America, as the farm boy out in rural Lancaster County. And the thing about rural folks, I think, is that they’ve never accepted that - and still don’t.
