Palin's "Homey" Bus Tour A Hoax: Report

Sarah Palin has continued to try to portray herself as "one of us," but while the rest of her staff has ridden from town to town on her "bus tour" promoting her new book, "Going Rogue," Palin herself has been exposed as one of the privileged, not one of us.

As reported by The Daily Beast, Palin's bus is full of something besides staffers, but that content doesn't include Palin. It is, however, quite smelly.

The bus itself, carrying staffers and Harper Collins publicist Tina Andreadis, logged more than 3,000 road miles during the book tour’s first week. Meanwhile, Sarah Palin seemed to be above traveling by road, as she was using a Gulfstream II 12-passenger private jet rented from Universal Jet Aviation of Boca Raton, Florida, at a cost of more than $4,000 per hour.

The Daily Beast reported that Palin tried to further the illusion with both quotes and interviews from the bus:

More than two weeks ago, quoting Andreadis, USA Today reported that Palin would be “making two and sometimes three stops a day, traveling in a bus painted with the cover of her book.” And just before the tour started, Palin herself said on her Facebook page: “I’ll post our progress from the road.” To further the illusion, the populist heroine gave televised interviews from the bus, including one to Greta Van Susteren en route to Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

It's very interesting because the GOP is wont to criticize President Barack Obama for date nights with First Lady Michelle Obama, completing ignoring the fact that it's not all that unusual for sitting Presidents to do such outings, using official transportation (would you want them to be on a commercial jet?). What's unusual is that due to the media attention focused on Obama, it becomes highly publicized.

By the way, it's not just The Daily Beast. Watch this local news report which features Sarah Palin "touching down."