Each time Palin was asked The Question last week, she insisted — with a thinly veiled exasperation missing during her answers to other queries — that her mind was not yet made up. Several close Palin associates, in recent private conversations with RCP, have said the same thing.

Palin told Hannity that her decision was still “weeks away,” and she has indicated on several occasions that she does not see much value in officially entering the race in the near future and opening herself up to more sustained scrutiny before she is compelled to do so…

While Palin was criticized for not divulging to the media her schedule each day, perhaps one reason was that she wanted to keep the crowd sizes down when she made her frequent stops along the route. In this, Palin succeeded. In so doing, she was able to achieve an intimacy with the public that was more akin to running citywide in Wasilla than nationwide as John McCain’s 2008 running mate. For example, her chat with local patrons at a coffee shop in Pennsylvania and her inquiries to workers at a New Hampshire fishery were done without the phony air of forced conversation for the benefit of the press that typically pervades such political photo ops.