SENECA FALLS, N.Y. — Governor Sarah Palin paused Friday afternoon at the in front of a monument bearing the Declaration of Sentiments, an early feminist touchstone. “We anticipate no small amount of ridicule,” she read, and remarked: “Some things never change.”
America’s most famous Republican elected official quietly took a commercial flight into sleepy Central New York Thursday, and spent Friday on a private tour of landmarks of early feminism Harriet Tubman’s House, the Women’s Rights National Historic Park, and the National Women’s Hall of Fame — for the low-key beginning of a week-long return to the lower 48 states and another step in the attempt to recalibrate her public image.
Palin, consumed by the media freak-show during last fall’s presidential campaign and its aftermath, is taking a deliberately low-key path, and making sure to link the visit to her responsibilities as governor.
She’s traveling with her husband, Todd, and her 14-year old daughter, Willow, as well as her sister and nephew, and the public events are deliberately focused and on a human scale. She has a single political aide, spokeswoman Meghan Stapleton, and two volunteer advance men. Her staff have scheduled no mass rallies or major addresses, and made no attempt to court the media, or even inform it of her plans, which have been announced piecemeal by the groups hosting her.
She is to participate in a march to raise money for autism research Sunday in Westchester and accept an award on Long Island for her work on behalf of people with developmental disabilities.
But as the first woman on a national Republican ticket, the party’s top grassroots star, and an obvious contender for the 2012 nomination, she’s a sought-after guest whose every move will be studied for political intent. And for, some of the buzz is too good to pass up. She’s expected to join former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani at a Yankee game. And though she riled Washington allies earlier this year by turning down an invitation to headline this week’s joint fundraiser of the House and Senate Republican campaign committees in Washington, she may now stop by the event, a source said, though Stapleton declined to comment on her schedule.