20,000? ... OR 5,000?

Hey, I'm back. Thank you, Tom, Kevin, aimai, and Jerome, for great posts while I was gone.

And now I see Sarah Palin has a bit of the right blogosphere in a tizzy. "What 2012 likes Now - It's Palin for the White House," says MacRanger, while A.J. Strata says, "Palin Power Still Very Potent" -- all because (per A.J.) "Palin is still able to mobilize 20,000 Americans on a sleepy June Saturday in a small town upper New York State." He's citing AP's story:

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin set aside politics only briefly Saturday to help Auburn officials celebrate their inaugural Founder's Day and raise money for a museum honoring William Seward, the 19th-century U.S. secretary of state who acquired Alaska for the United States.

More than 20,000 people turned out to see the former Republican vice presidential candidate lead a parade through downtown Auburn and sign a proclamation on the steps of City Hall honoring Seward as "the one person most responsible for Alaska."

However, it appears that the pinko commie liberal America-haters in the Auburn Police Department have a somewhat different take on the attendance:

An estimated crowd of 5,000 to 6,000 people, according to the Auburn Police Department, filled the downtown area along with dozens of vendors, entertainers and other festival participants.

We're told this was triple the size of the crowd for the Memorial Day parade -- so yeah, Sarah's a draw. She's just not a huge draw. The soft-serve ice cream and the pizza frites were drawing pretty big crowds as well.

This was a day after Palin went to Seneca Falls, New York, and used a feminist landmark as a jumping-off point for a momentary self-pity party:

Governor Sarah Palin paused Friday afternoon in front of a monument bearing the Declaration of Sentiments, an early feminist touchstone.

"We anticipate no small amount of ridicule," she read, and remarked: "Some things never change." ...

The exact wording in the 1848 Declaration of Sentiments is "In entering upon the great work before us, we anticipate no small amount of misconception, misrepresentation, and ridicule...." -- and I wonder if Palin has processed the fact that it follows a long list of complaints that, while entirely accurate, would probably have been described by Palin's fellow present-day Republicans (and, in all likelihood, by Palin herself) as "male-bashing":

The history of mankind is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations on the part of man toward woman, having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over her. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has never permitted her to exercise her inalienable right to the elective franchise.

He has compelled her to submit to laws, in the formation of which she had no voice....

He has made her, if married, in the eye of the law, civilly dead.

He has taken from her all right in property, even to the wages she earns.

He has made her, morally, an irresponsible being, as she can commit many crimes with impunity, provided they be done in the presence of her husband. In the covenant of marriage, she is compelled to promise obedience to her husband, he becoming, to all intents and purposes, her master -- the law giving him power to deprive her of her liberty, and to administer chastisement.

He has so framed the laws of divorce, as to what shall be the proper causes of divorce; in case of separation, to whom the guardianship of the children shall be given; as to be wholly regardless of the happiness of women -- the law, in all cases, going upon the false supposition of the supremacy of man, and giving all power into his hands....

If you believe Sarah Palin, transported to 1848, would have endorsed these sentiments, I have a Bridge to Nowhere I'd like to sell you.

And, i you really must, you can watch yesterday's Palin speech in its entirety here by following the links embedded in the Part 1 video. Me, I bailed midway through Part 2, when Palin literally compared Greta Van Susteren to Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. No, I'm not making that up.

****

UPDATE: In comments, DanP asks:

Is it just a coincidence that Palin "unexpectedly" went to Seneca Falls a day after firing the Alaska Public Health Director, Beverly Wooley, a strong advocate for women's sexual health issues?

Interesting point....