Palin Skips Another Speech, Denies Accepting Invitation

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has told the Alaska Family Council she will not speak at its event Thursday night in Anchorage, which has been heavily promoted as her first appearance since she left the governor's office. It is the fourth time in several months that Palin has backed out of an event at the last minute, saying she had not accepted the invitations to begin with.

The same thing happened in early August, when Palin declared herself unable to attend a California Republican women's event, adding that she had never accepted an invitation to speak and had requested her name be removed from the program several weeks earlier. Palin also backed out of the annual Conservative Political Action Conference in February after confirming her attendance, citing the "duties of governing."

Organizers for the Family Council event, a kickoff for Alaskans for Parental Rights, are left scratching their heads over what appears to be a failure of communication. Palin spokeswoman Megan Stapleton said, "This is the first we have ever heard of a speech." She said the former governor acknowledges receiving an invitation and "had hoped to be able to attend," but says she didn't know she was supposed to speak. The group's invitation stated only that Palin and conservative author Star Parker would be "joining" them for the event, not that they would be speaking. Maybe someone just assumed if Palin were in the building, she would naturally want to say a few words?

While it seems plausible that such a misunderstanding could happen once, it hardly seems likely to have happened twice, and certainly not several times.