By Yereth Rosen
ANCHORAGE, Alaska | Thu Jun 23, 2011 12:25am EDT
(Reuters) – Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin said on Wednesday she was pausing her “One Nation” bus tour to answer the call of jury duty and denied media reports her much-hyped multi-state jaunt had been cut short.
“The next leg of the tour continues when the time comes,” she said in a message posted on Facebook. “In the meantime, no one should jump to conclusions — certainly not the media with their long track record of getting things wrong or just making things up.”
The 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee has hinted she may run for president in 2012, and many have viewed her bus tour as a possible campaign warm-up should Palin ever declare herself a White House candidate.
Palin kicked off her tour over the Memorial Day holiday weekend and visited a number of historic sites along the East Coast.
Responding to a flurry of reports on Wednesday that several stops had been removed from her itinerary, Palin went online to clarify her plans.
“It hasn’t been canceled,” she wrote. “As I said myself at the end of the East Coast leg of the tour, the summer is long, and I’m looking forward to hitting the open road again.
“The coming weeks are tight because civic duty calls (like most everyone else, even former governors get called up for jury duty) and I look forward to doing my part just like every other Alaskan,” her message said.
Palin’s Facebook post did not say when her jury service might start or when she had been summoned to serve.
The online political outlet RealClearPolitics.com reported that Palin might return to the political limelight to promote the upcoming film documentary of her career, “The Undefeated,” due to premiere in Iowa and other early caucus and primary states before its July 15 nationwide release.
(Writing by Alex Dobuzinskis; Editing by Steve Gorman and Jerry Norton)
Jacqueline Tongko 