Sarah Palin to meet with McConnell in Washington

The Alaska governor(pictured) who excited the conservative base and incensed die-hard liberals is in Washington this weekend as we reported here.

Palin’s appearance in Washington is starting talk of her possible run for the White House in 2012.

For the most part, Palin shrugged off her new national fame, claiming Alaska remains her first priority.

"I do receive — our office receives — hundreds if not thousands of requests to either speak or participate in something," Palin said. "We turn them down for the most part, we say, ‘No, I'm not going to leave Alaska’ or ‘I'll rarely travel outside of Alaska.’ "

The fact that she formed a PAC (Political Action Committee) is adding fuel to speculation that she plans to run for president in the future.

Political candidates often form PAC’s as a way to boost their national profile and to curry favor with local officials in advance of a national campaign.

"It's helpful to have a PAC so that when I'm invited to things, even like to speak at the Lincoln Day dinner in Fairbanks, to have a PAC pay for that instead of have the state pay for that because that could be considered quasi-political," she said.

"Other governors in the past, they all had a fund to be able to travel for things like that. I do not," Palin added. "But now we'll have an available source of funds so that we're not coming close to any ethical line to be crossed in terms of travel or participation in events that will help Alaska but could be seen perhaps as not worthy of state funding."

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