SEDONA, Ariz. -- Late Sunday night, there was a change of plans. Sarah Palin was no longer heading to St. Louis. Instead of spending four days in the city hosting the vice presidential debate, Palin and her entourage were going to Arizona, to spend the time at John McCain's ranch in Sedona.
With little more than a month before Election Day, both locations have their strategic drawbacks. In this election, even where the candidates rest is important.
Even though Palin is not likely to spend much time outside while she prepares for Thursday's debate with Democratic counterpart Joe Biden, spending four days outside a swing state means four days' worth of missed opportunities.
A candidate's arrival in a new place, even just to hunker down with advisers or spend time with family, brings local cameras out to the airport tarmac. A trip to the market or a jog around town brings out the smiles and even more coverage. Voters like to know the candidate has been to their hometown, especially when it means a nudge to the local economy with hotel bookings and shopping. That's why candidates strategically pick where they are headed when they're not going home.
Palin, who has traveled with celebrity status in the past month, has a better opportunity than anyone else on either ticket to choose where she vacations or studies. Most of the candidates go home when they need a break, but with Alaska so far from the continental United States, she has little choice but to take a break elsewhere. Already, she has spent "down days" in Denver, Orlando and Philadelphia -- all important media markets in states up for grabs Nov. 4.
Compare that to McCain, who usually weekends in either Washington, D.C. or Arizona. Barack Obama usually travels to Illinois for his breaks, and Biden is preparing for the debate in his hometown of Wilmington, Del. None of those states is in dispute this year.
While Biden goes home often, Palin has been back to Alaska only once, for a three-night homecoming shortly after being named to the Republican ticket. The trip was aimed at highlighting her work as governor and providing a backdrop for her first television interview. It was also an opportunity for her to say goodbye to her eldest son, Track, who was being deployed to Iraq with the Army. Campaign aides said they don't expect her back in Alaska at all until Election Day, when she might return to cast her own ballot.
Last weekend, while studying for the debate in Philadelphia, Palin took several jogs around the Schuylkill River with the media in tow, and was strategically clad in a Philadelphia Eagles jersey on game day. And a week earlier, when Palin spent some down time in Orlando, the campaign alerted the press that husband Todd took a few of the couple's children to Walt Disney World.
But the strategy has its hazards. Cameras caught Palin on Saturday taking a question from a local voter about Pakistan; perhaps caught off-guard, she said the United States should consider launching cross-border attacks from Afghanistan into Pakistan to curb terrorism. The answer seemed to contradict McCain's comments at the first presidential debate that the U.S. shouldn't say in public what it would do if allies don't cooperate.
McCain later told CBS News' Katie Couric in a joint interview with Palin that the question was an example of "'gotcha' journalism."
"Is that a pizza place?" McCain said of the exchange. "In a conversation with someone who you didn't hear... very well, you don't know the context of the conversation, grab a phrase. Governor Palin and I agree that you don't announce that you're going to attack another country."
The campaign doesn't fly to a swing state just for some down time. Palin sometimes spends a few extra days in the city of her last event or arrives early at the location of her next rally. That means added coverage hyping an event to come or several more days of the good images produced from the last rally.
Perhaps the media glare is what prompted Palin to seek out the relative solitude of McCain's ranch instead of staying in battleground Ohio, where she appeared with McCain on Monday in her last rally before Thursday's debate. While large media contingents are heading to St. Louis, fewer than a dozen members of the press came with Palin to Arizona. The campaign can better control access at McCain's ranch and allow Palin to focus on her debate with Biden instead of a trip to Starbucks to garner good local press.
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