WASHINGTON — In a move certain to feed speculation about her political plans, Sarah Palin will visit Iowa Tuesday to attend the premiere of a movie about her career.
Palin and her husband, Todd, will attend the premiere of the movie, "The Undefeated," at an historic theater in the small town of Pella, outside Des Moines.
"We are very excited to visit historic Pella and its opera house and look forward to seeing the finished film for the first time with fellow Americans from the heartland," Palin said in a statement released by the movie producers.
The former Alaska governor has not yet said clearly whether she'll seek the 2012 Republican presidential nomination. If she did, she'd want to compete in Iowa, where precinct caucuses early next year will be the first contest of the nomination fight and where her blend of social conservatism and tea party rhetoric would have strong appeal.
Palin will arrive in Iowa a day after Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., also a favorite of tea party conservatives, launches her campaign Monday in Iowa.
"They are only about 100 miles apart," said one Palin supporter in a comment posted to Palin's Facebook page Saturday. "Looks like the GAME IS ON!"
"Run Sarah Run!" said another.
Polls show that Palin remains a potential force in the still emerging field of contenders for the nomination. In an average of all recent public polls by realclearpolitics.com, she was second behind former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, but well ahead of all other candidates including Bachmann.
Palin will also be in Iowa the same day as President Barack Obama, who will be visiting an Alcoa factory in Bettendorf.
The movie's producers chose Iowa for the premiere because its political significance made it more likely to draw media attention. They chose Pella because they wanted a small town, one that director Stephen K. Bannon said "speaks to the basic core values" of Palin and the movie.
After the premiere, the producers will hold a cookout for the people of the town.
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