Palin's move appeals to a narrowing Republican base in Iowa, rural reporter writes

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's surprise resignation may have been crazy like an arctic fox when it comes to Iowa, Hawkeye State reporter Douglas Burns writes in the Daily Yonder.

"Her appeal with Iowa Republican caucus-goers is precisely what was on display late last week — an absolute thumb-nosing of establishment politics," writes Burns, whio main job is with the Daily Times Herald the west-central Iowa town of Carroll. "What made Palin popular with Iowans was not her resume of experience in Alaska. Those who cheered her in Sioux City last fall, with the most vocal applause for a Republican I saw in Iowa in the 2008 presidential cycle, knew little about it." (Burns photo of Palin in Sioux City)

Here's the core of Burns' piece:

"The D.C. boys with the Blackberrys tell us that Palin should have stayed in Alaska to finish her term. Then perhaps, as she is only 45, take a shot at the U.S. Senate. Build some credentials, burnish that resume.
That would put Palin on the same playing field as other politicians, and by that measure, she loses.
Palin is already a political figure too large for the office she holds. That speech was clumsy but what matters is how Iowa Republicans will view her now.
Will they hold it against Palin that she quit her job as Alaska governor to become a national advocate, a visible and likely effective one, for their values? It's hard to think of someone as a quitter when you see them more on television and at party dinners and in other venues than you did before.

Burns says some national observers think Iowa Republicans will "reach out to moderates and carve out more widely palatable positions," but he doesn;t see it that way. "Having been to two major GOP events in just the last 10 days in Iowa I get the distinct sense that the party is growing smaller, more insular, more angry — and that it is likely to double-down on a candidate like Palin." Further evidence: Iowa Republicans are asking her to speak to their next big dinner. "Palin is exactly what many Republicans want. A time machine," Burns writes. "We know that machine goes back, but whether there's a switch on it for the future remains to be seen." (Read more)

Meanwhile, Sean Cockerham of the Anchorage Daily News discounts Palin's claim that the State of Alaska has spent "millions" on records requests, complaints and inquiries targeting Palin. Actually, the state says the figure is $1.9 million, and "Most of it is a per-hour accounting of the time state employees, such as state attorneys, have spent working on public records requests, lawsuits, ethics complaints, and issues surrounding the Legislature's 'Troopergate' investigation last summer of Palin," Cockerham writes. "Those state employees would have been paid regardless."

UPDATE, July 12: Frank Rich of The New York Times weighs in: "She stands for a genuine movement: a dwindling white nonurban America that is aflame with grievances and awash in self-pity as the country hurtles into the 21st century and leaves it behind." Rich recalls the "signature line" in Palin's convention speech, “I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a community organizer, except that you have actual responsibilities,” and calls it "a deftly coded putdown of her presumably shiftless big-city opponent. ... Funny how this wisdom has been forgotten by her supporters now that she has abandoned her own actual responsibilities in public office." Later, Rich adds, "Even now, the so-called mainstream media can grade Palin on a curve: at MSNBC’s 'Morning Joe' last week, Palin’s self-proclaimed representation of the 'real America' was accepted as a given, as if white rural America actually still was the nation’s baseline." Looking ahead, he writes, "Those Republicans who have not drunk the Palin Kool-Aid are apocalyptic for good reason. She could well be their last presidential candidate standing. Such would-be competitors as Mark Sanford, John Ensign and Newt Gingrich are too carnally compromised for the un-Clinton party. Mike Huckabee is Palin-lite." (Read more)

UPDATE, July 13: Republican pundits have blistered Palin's move, "revealing a serious split within the party," Mark Z. Barabak of the Los Angeles Times reports.