Sarah Palin is NOT Running for President (Not Yet, Anyway)

Sarah Palin is not running for president. Repeat: Sarah Palin is NOT running for president. Not yet, anyway.

Former Bush advisor Karl Rove stirred speculation that Palin might soon announce her candidacy for president over the weekend with statements on Fox News suggesting it appears more likely than not that Palin will run. But the former Alaska governor and VP presidential candidate turned conservative spokesperson and celebrity issued a different statement Tuesday through her Sarah PAC Web site.

Palin said she is not about to announce her candidacy for president.

Three years ago DC pundits predicted with glee the demise of Sarah Palin's political career, said the post made Tuesday at sarahpac.com. The past weekend their tune changed, citing false information that she has made a decision and set a date regarding a future campaign.

Any professional pundit claiming to have 'inside information' regarding Governor Palin's personal decision is not only wrong but their comments are specifically intended to mislead the American public. These are the same tired establishment political games that fuel the 24 hour news cycle and that all Americans will hopefully reject in 2012, and this is m ore of the 'politics-as-usual' that Sarah Palin has fought against throughout her career.

The posting did not list Rove by name, rather, it hinted at his comments made over the weekend.

Speaking to Fox News over the weekend, Rove had said that the former 2008 GOP Vice Presidential candidate has a schedule next week that looks like that of a candidate, not a celebrity,

Rove noted that a video Palin released when she travelled to the Iowa State Fair looked like a campaign statement.

This is her last chance. She either gets in or gets out. I think she gets in, Rove said.

Rove also thinks that joining the race late will not hurt Palin's ability to raise election funds.

If you're Sarah Palin you just show up and the money comes and the organization comes and the people come, he said.

Also last week, conservative radio talk show host Mark Levin also said he thinks Palin will enter the race.

Look, I could be dead wrong, Levin said. I have no inside information. But I want to underscore what I've been saying, which is I believe Sarah Palin will run for president. Just want to put my marker down because others are starting to do it and I put it down quite some time ago.

Palin will speak at a Tea Party of America-sponsored event in Iowa on September, but that is not a likely place for her to announce her candidacy, according to people who have spoken to her in recent days. The New York Times quoted sources on Tuesday who said even if Palin did decide to run she is unlikely to announce at the upcoming Tea Party rally.

Even Palin said as recently as Aug. 12 that the end of September is a reasonable timetable for her to decide whether or not she's running for president.

To be fair to those supporters and potential supporters, who are waiting on figuring out what the set field will be, Palin told reporters, I want to be fair to them and make sure that they don't feel like they are just hanging on to something that's not going to happen.