Palin Turned Down CPAC Keynote Address
ABC News reports:
After skipping the popular Conservative Political Action Conference for the past three years, Sarah Palin has once again turned down the invitation of CPAC officials to address the conference this year.
CPAC organizers invited Palin to deliver the closing-night keynote speech on Saturday Feb. 12, immediately following the announcement of the results of CPAC’s annual presidential straw poll, but after several days of negotiations, she declined.
“We’re disappointed that she wasn’t able to make it this year,” American Conservative Union Chairman David Keene said through a spokesman on Thursday. He noted that Palin "expressed interest in wanting to come this year," but said that it came down to "a scheduling issue."
The former Alaska governor has a rocky history with the group. In 2010, she stayed away from the event citing the business dealings of the American Conservative Union and Keene, who is a lead organizer of the event.
In 2009, while still serving as governor of Alaska, she initially accepted an invitation to speak on the conference’s opening day, but later dropped outsaying that she had to attend to the “duties of governing,” according to a CPAC spokesman. She sent a taped message to the conference instead.
In 2008, CPAC organizer Lisa De Pasquale said that Palin had to drop out of CPAC “at the last minute.”
While Palin will not be there in person, her political action committee, SarahPAC, is sponsoring a Diamond Reception on the CPAC’s opening night -- Thursday, Feb. 10.
