By the time she trudged up a dirt parking lot to the fair's VIP area, only ten or so reporters were left, and we'd run out of questions. She looked up, seeming a bit startled by the silence, and drew a few more.
Nobody asked her about the natural gas pipeline which looks all but dead. Nobody asked her about the current governor's attempt to undoe her oil tax policy in Alaska. Both of which were her signature pieces of legislation. No reporter even mentioned her quitting on Alaskans.
And nobody is the wiser about her presidential aspirations. She did say that she would decide in September, and that if she did run, it would be a very unconventional campaign, according to the LA Times:
"Each campaign that I've ever run in these 20 years of elected office has been kind of unconventional, right, Todd?" Palin said, turning to her husband. "I've always been outspent 2:1, 5:1, 10:1. I never won any polls heading into election night but usually won the election."
She said that if she were to run, she wouldn't do things the "traditional" way. "We want new! We want new energy, we want conviction and passion and candidness, even if through that candidates make mistakes," she said.
If she runs, she would speak from the heart about "where I think America needs to head and how I think we can turn the economy around, and here's what I've done in the past to show you truly a foundation of where my beliefs come from, of what works — in a small town, in a state, in a big industry like oil and gas," said Palin, the 2008 vice presidential nominee. "What is it that can be done to turn things around. I'll express that."
Republicans here were scratching their heads at the timing of her visit to the Iowa State Fair, a popular venue for presidential candidates. Why did she hit the first-in-the-nation caucus state now, other than to distort the playing field or suck the spotlight from declared candidates who are campaigning for Saturday's Iowa straw poll?
Palin said she's simply resuming her One Nation bus tour — and that she didn't think she was stealing any candidate's thunder. She's seriously considering entering the race, she said, and she thinks her followers deserve an answer soon.
"This is what I've told Todd over and over: I don't want to be seen as or perceived as stringing people along, asking supporters, 'Oh, don't jump in there on someone else's bandwagon.' That's not fair to them after another month or two goes by. They need to know who it is that they can jump behind."
Insiders in Iowa politics are skeptical that a White House bid by Palin is realistic.
Iowa GOP Chairman Matt Strawn, in an interview with NBC's Andrea Mitchell, said Palin will be back in Iowa over the Labor Day weekend to talk to a tea party group, "so maybe we'll get some more clues at that point." But, he added: "To be successful in Iowa, you need to be on the ground, giving regular Iowans a chance to look you in the eye and ask a tough question."
Asked how she'd run her campaign, Palin said it would be unconventional and grass-roots-based.
"I wouldn't be out there looking for hires out of that political bubble that seem to result in the same old ideas," she said.
While the announced GOP candidates work it like they mean it across the state, she has popped in only twice, in late June for the premiere of the documentary "The Undefeated" in Pella and on Friday.
During the June trip, she met with Iowa Republicans Becky Beach of Des Moines and Moe Sinclair of Melrose, who talked up the State Fair during a lunch date.
Palin arrived at the State Fair with Beach and Sinclair about 10:45 a.m., just as presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty was finishing up with his pork-chop-flipping photo op. After coming in Gate 7, a back-door entrance used by fair participants bringing in calves and horses, Palin headed straight for the Cattle Barn.
Beaming, she chatted with camera-armed fairgoers as aides and security watched over her, including an off-duty Des Moines police officer in a Hawaiian shirt.
Palin told reporters she's not trying to snub Iowans.
"I do understand the passion Iowa has for this early process. I love it," she said. "It's part of the political heritage of America and I respect it."
But she said it was too early to enter the race, and added: "Hopefully, if I were to jump in there, my ideas would have an appeal not to just Iowa and New Hampshire and South Carolina but every other state, too."
Palin said she was in Iowa for just a day.
"I don't want to step on anybody's toes so I won't be in the state tomorrow," she said, referring to today's straw poll.
But next month "has to be kind of a drop-dead timeline" for deciding whether or not she will make a bid for the White House herself, she said.
At one point, her husband, Todd, told the horde of reporters: "You guys are killing me. I'm starving."
But it was Palin who chose to linger. She praised former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich for calling out the press for focusing on the minutiae of the race, rather than issues, but cheerfully answered questions until the reporters tailing her had nothing left to ask.
Palin, after telling supporters in an email Wednesday that she wanted to try fried butter on a stick, ate a corn dog for lunch.
Palin also appeared on "The Sean Hannity Show," a conservative program on Fox News, at 8 p.m. live from the fair.
She threw a miniature football to the crowd soon after taking the stage, gaining loud cheers. Hundreds of people surrounded the stage, set up in a street near the Agriculture Building.
On the program, Palin praised Newt Gingrich for calling out moderators of the Fox News/Iowa GOP presidential debate Thursday for so-called "gotcha" questions.
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