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Washington (CNN) – Sarah Palin has signed 20,000 copies of "Going Rogue" during her nationwide book tour, a staffer traveling with the former Alaska governor estimates.

Palin will have visited 13 cities and traveled 4,000 miles by the end of Tuesday, with 80 percent of that travel done aboard the "Going Rogue" bus, according to Jason Recher, an adviser to Palin during her vice presidential bid now assisting with book tour logistics. Recher ticked through the statistics while riding the bus to Palin's stop at The Villages retirement community in central Florida.

He said Palin has sold 700,000 copies of her memoir so far.

"She is truly enjoying it," Recher told CNN. "I think she'd rather spend her time talking to folks like this rather than going to to fundraisers or talking to donors. She'd rather be signing books and meeting people than being a politician."

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(CNN) - Sarah Palin may not be running for office, but she's heading back to a former campaign stop: On Tuesday, the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee's book tour brings her back to the Villages, a large adult retirement community in central Florida that was the site of her first campaign appearance in the state last year.

On September 21, 2008, John McCain's running mate addressed a massive crowd as she visited the must-stop location for any candidate campaigning in the key battleground state.

The former Alaska governor and potential 2012 candidate will also visit Jacksonville and Orlando Tuesday as she promotes her new book, "Going Rogue: An American Life.".

–CNN Deputy Political Director Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report

Follow Paul Steinhauser on Twitter: @psteinhausercnn

(CNN) - Sarah Palin's book tour brings her to Iowa in two weeks. If the former Alaska governor and last year's GOP vice presidential nominee decides to return to Iowa down to road to explore a race for the White House, a new survey suggests that Republicans in the state like her - but have some doubts.

According to a Des Moines Register Iowa poll, 68 percent of Hawkeye Republicans view Palin favorably. That's a statistically insignificant 2 points behind those who have a positive view of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who won the 2008 Iowa caucuses, which traditionally kick off the presidential primary season.

Among other potential 2012 candidates: The survey indicates that two out of three view former House Speaker Newt Gingrich favorably and 58 percent have a positive view of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

"With those kinds of numbers, if she were to become a candidate, while it's not a sure thing, she would be starting out in a very good position," veteran Iowa GOP strategist David Roederer told the Des Moines Register. Roederer ran McCain's 2008 Iowa campaign.

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Washington (CNN) – Longtime Clinton ally and Democratic strategist James Carville had some rare words of praise for former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union. But, ever the good husband, Carville made sure to heap equal praise on his wife, Republican strategist Mary Matalin.

The two were discussing the recent controversial cover of Newsweek magazine, in which Palin is shown in running shorts. Carville said Palin should not complain about the use of a photo which was not a candid shot but one she had originally posed for, even if it were for a publication other than Newsweek. Echoing recent comments by Palin, Matalin disagreed and said she thought the Newsweek cover was sexist.

“You can agree on this,” Matalin asked her husband, “she looked good in it, right?”

“She does,” Carville said without hesitation, “Ain’t no doubt about that. You and her are the two best-looking women in the Republican Party,” the Democrat told his wife.

Related: Carville, Matalin share rare tender moment

But Carville did not have much more positive to say about Palin.

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Washington (CNN) – Longtime Clinton ally and Democratic strategist James Carville had some rare words of praise for former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union. But, ever the good husband, Carville made sure to heap equal praise on his wife, Republican strategist Mary Matalin.

The two were discussing the recent controversial cover of Newsweek magazine, in which Palin is shown in running shorts. Carville said Palin should not complain about the use of a photo which was not a candid shot but one she had originally posed for, even if it were for a publication other than Newsweek. Echoing recent comments by Palin, Matalin disagreed and said she thought the Newsweek cover was sexist.

“You can agree on this,” Matalin asked her husband, “she looked good in it, right?”

“She does,” Carville said without hesitation, “Ain’t no doubt about that. You and her are the two best-looking women in the Republican Party,” the Democrat told his wife.

Related: Carville, Matalin share rare tender moment

But Carville did not have much more positive to say about Palin.

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WASHINGTON (CNN)– Revisiting some of her campaign trail talking points, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin weighed in on the Senate health care vote, criticizing the Democrats and Majority Leader Harry Reid for a lack of transparency.

"Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is pushing for yet another weekend vote (commonplace now for the party of "transparency") because he knows that the American people will be none too happy about the Democrats' proposal the longer they have to look it over," Palin wrote late Friday night in a posting on her Facebook page.

Republicans, who have expressed opposition to the Democrats' bill from the beginning, have threatened to read the full 2,074 page bill during Senate debate, claiming the more Americans hear about what is in the bill, the less they will like it.

Palin went on to talk about features in the bill: government spending, abortion, and help for special needs children.

"While this Saturday night vote might seem like a procedural matter, at the end of the day a vote against Senator Reid's motion is a vote against massive new government spending and a take-over of 1/6th of the U.S. economy; it's a vote against billions in tax increases and penalties; it's a vote against federal funding of abortion; and it's a vote against ignoring responsible tort reform," Palin wrote. "Among the provisions in this bill will be a $2,500 cap on Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs). The IRS allows families with special needs children to use FSAs to cover educational expenses. This new $2,500 cap will hit these families especially hard and cost them hundreds of dollars in new taxes every year."

Palin concluded by encouraging Americans to voice their opposition to their senators before the vote.
"The American people don't support this – we support the commonsense solutions that have been proposed, but totally ignored by (at this point) some out-of-control Washington politicians. Let's put a stop to Obamacare before it goes any further," she wrote.

Washington (CNN) - The Democratic Party's fundraising off of Sarah Palin's "dangerous" book tour.

"Right now, Sarah Palin is on a highly publicized, nationwide book tour, attacking President Obama and his plan for health reform at every turn," wrote Organizing for America director Mitch Stewart in a message sent to supporters Friday.

"It's dangerous. Remember, this is the person who coined the term 'Death Panels' - and opened the flood gates for months of false attacks by special interests and partisan extremists. Whatever lie comes next will be widely covered by the media, then constantly echoed by right-wing attack groups and others who are trying to defeat reform.

The group, the president's political arm at the Democratic National Committee, set a goal of raising $500,000 over the next week "to help push back against Sarah Palin and her allies." OFA said the contributions will be used to respond to those attacks via ads, events, and phone banking congressional offices.

CEDAR CREEK, Texas (CNN) – Chris Christie and Bob McDonnell, the soon-to-be-governors of New Jersey and Virginia, both deflected questions Wednesday about why Sarah Palin did not appear with the two Republicans during their respective campaigns.

Christie said he only had three GOP heavyweights visit New Jersey during his campaign - Rudy Giuliani, Tim Pawlenty and Mitt Romney - and each came for a specific reason.

“I had a long standing relationship with Mayor Giuliani,” Christie explained. “Gov. Pawlenty and Gov. Romney both faced the same type of crises financially in their state when they took over that we did.”

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Cedar Creek, Texas (CNN) – Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell said Thursday he has read "significant portions" of Sarah Palin's new memoir and called it "a great re-telling of her story thus far."

Parnell, who succeeded Palin in Juneau when she resigned her office in July, said he read parts of the book during his flight from Alaska to Texas, where he is attending the Republican Governors Association's annual conference. Palin did not send him a copy of the book, he said.

"It's such a conversational tone, and there is so much in there that I have lived with her, except for the presidential campaign," Parnell told CNN. "I have enjoyed it."

But Parnell said Alaskans have moved on from the drama of the 2008 campaign and are now primarily concerned with local economic issues.

"Most of our focus has returned to our state issues, the gas line, resource development," he said. "People are just concerned about their jobs, just like here. People are focused on the economy.

WASHINGTON (CNN) - Sarah Palin on Wednesday sent out her first tweet in nearly four months on a new Twitter account associated with her book tour.

She tweeted from a BlackBerry at 11:04 p.m. ET: "Michigan-thx 4 Going Rogue! Perfect tour kickoff w/Kid Rock tune praising Northern MI humming in backgrnd @ Barnes/Noble. Above expectations."

The former Alaska governor and vice presidential candidate launched a bus tour for her new book, "Going Rogue: An American Life," which is already a bestseller. The tour started Wednesday in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Palin's last tweet occurred from an account associated with Alaska's governorship. When she resigned in late July, the @AKGovSarahPalin went dormant and Palin switched to sending out frequent Facebook messages.

This week, her old Twitter account sent a message, saying @AKGovSarahPalin would be removed and Palin would begin tweeting from a new account: @SarahPalinUSA.

Palin has more than 22,000 people following her new account. More than 153,000 people followed her original account.

(CNN) – Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to buy Sarah Palin's just-released memoir, but don't count President Obama among them.

In an interview with CNN's Ed Henry in China, the president acknowledged Wednesday he would not be reading the highly-anticipated memoir by his potential 2012 opponent.

"I probably won't, but I don't get a chance to read things other than briefing books very often these days anyway," he said.

Obama also suggested he views the former Alaska governor as a credible candidate should she decide to seek the presidency in a couple of years.

"You know, she obviously has a big constituency in the Republican Party," he said. "You know, there a lot of people who are excited by her."

But when it comes to the 2012 race, Obama didn't discount the possibility he may sit out on a reelection bid.

"You know, if - if I feel like I've made the very best decisions for the American people and three years from now I look at it and, you know, my poll numbers are in the tank and because we've gone through these wrenching changes, you know, politically, I'm in a tough spot, I'll - I'll feel all right about myself," Obama told CNN's Ed Henry during an interview in China.

Related: North Korea, trade on agenda as Obama visits South Korea

"I said to myself very early on, even when I started running for office, I don't want to be making decisions based on getting reelected, because I think the challenges that America faces right now are so significant," the president also said. "Obviously, if I make those decisions and I think that I'm moving the country on the right direction economically, in terms of our security interests, our foreign policy, I'd like to think that those policies are continued because they're not going to bear fruit just in four years."

But in the next breath the president quickly sounded like someone who would relish taking his case to the American people in 2012, saying he's tackling big issues like health care and Iran that he's confident will bear fruit in the future.

The last president not to seek reelection was Lyndon Johnson in 1968.

(CNN) – Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to buy Sarah Palin's just-released memoir, but don't count President Obama among them.

In an interview with CNN's Ed Henry in China, the president acknowledged Wednesday he would not be reading the highly-anticipated memoir by his potential 2012 opponent.

"I probably won't, but I don't get a chance to read things other than briefing books very often these days anyway," he said.

Obama also suggested he views the former Alaska governor as a credible candidate should she decide to seek the presidency in a couple of years.

"You know, she obviously has a big constituency in the Republican Party," he said. "You know, there a lot of people who are excited by her."

But when it comes to the 2012 race, Obama didn't discount the possibility he may sit out on a reelection bid.

"You know, if - if I feel like I've made the very best decisions for the American people and three years from now I look at it and, you know, my poll numbers are in the tank and because we've gone through these wrenching changes, you know, politically, I'm in a tough spot, I'll - I'll feel all right about myself," Obama told CNN's Ed Henry during an interview in China.

Related: North Korea, trade on agenda as Obama visits South Korea

"I said to myself very early on, even when I started running for office, I don't want to be making decisions based on getting reelected, because I think the challenges that America faces right now are so significant," the president also said. "Obviously, if I make those decisions and I think that I'm moving the country on the right direction economically, in terms of our security interests, our foreign policy, I'd like to think that those policies are continued because they're not going to bear fruit just in four years."

But in the next breath the president quickly sounded like someone who would relish taking his case to the American people in 2012, saying he's tackling big issues like health care and Iran that he's confident will bear fruit in the future.

The last president not to seek reelection was Lyndon Johnson in 1968.

(CNN) – Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to buy Sarah Palin's just-released memoir, but don't count President Obama among them.

In an interview with CNN's Ed Henry in China, the president acknowledged Wednesday he would not be reading the highly-anticipated memoir by his potential 2012 opponent.

"I probably won't, but I don't get a chance to read things other than briefing books very often these days anyway," he said.

Obama also suggested he views the former Alaska governor as a credible candidate should she decide to seek the presidency in a couple of years.

"You know, she obviously has a big constituency in the Republican Party," he said. "You know, there a lot of people who are excited by her."

But when it comes to the 2012 race, Obama didn't discount the possibility he may sit out on a reelection bid.

"You know, if - if I feel like I've made the very best decisions for the American people and three years from now I look at it and, you know, my poll numbers are in the tank and because we've gone through these wrenching changes, you know, politically, I'm in a tough spot, I'll - I'll feel all right about myself," Obama told CNN's Ed Henry during an interview in China.

Related: North Korea, trade on agenda as Obama visits South Korea

"I said to myself very early on, even when I started running for office, I don't want to be making decisions based on getting reelected, because I think the challenges that America faces right now are so significant," the president also said. "Obviously, if I make those decisions and I think that I'm moving the country on the right direction economically, in terms of our security interests, our foreign policy, I'd like to think that those policies are continued because they're not going to bear fruit just in four years."

But in the next breath the president quickly sounded like someone who would relish taking his case to the American people in 2012, saying he's tackling big issues like health care and Iran that he's confident will bear fruit in the future.

The last president not to seek reelection was Lyndon Johnson in 1968.

CEDAR CREEK, Texas (CNN) – Chris Christie and Bob McDonnell, the soon-to-be-governors of New Jersey and Virginia, both deflected questions Wednesday about why Sarah Palin did not appear with the two Republicans during their respective campaigns.

Christie said he only had three GOP heavyweights visit New Jersey during his campaign - Rudy Giuliani, Tim Pawlenty and Mitt Romney - and each came for a specific reason.

“I had a long standing relationship with Mayor Giuliani,” Christie explained. “Gov. Pawlenty and Gov. Romney both faced the same type of crises financially in their state when they took over that we did.”

McDonnell said his campaign had reached out to Palin nearly a year ago to campaign in Virginia, but said she was overwhelmed with requests at the time. When she stepped down as governor of Alaska in July, McDonnell said, their visitor lineup had already been set - a full four months before election day in Virginia.

“We thought she was a good leader for the party as the governor of Alaska and had some good reforms in the state, but she was in such incredible demand frankly for the longest time we were not able to work out anything for her to come in,” he said. “And then after she decided to leave office we had pretty much already arranged all of the folks that we had for the home stretch for fundraisers, including several current and former governors, and so we pretty much had our strategy set at that point.”

Christie and McDonnell made the comments at a news conference held during the Republican Governors Association's annual meeting near Austin.

(CNN) – Sarah Palin has finally returned to Michigan.

"I just can't tell you how good it is to be back in Michigan," Palin told a large crowd outside a Barnes and Noble bookstore in Grand Rapids Wednesday, the first stop in the former Alaska governor's bus tour for her new book, "Going Rogue: An American Life."

The former Republican vice presidential nominee wore a red and black jacket and black shirt and carried her son Trig as she emerged from the bus, which was emblazoned with the book's cover.

John McCain's running mate took issue last year with his campaign's decision to pull out of Michigan and move resources to other states. In her book, Palin says her opposition to the decision to abandon Michigan is when she first went rogue. At the end of the book, on page 403, Palin says that Michigan can't be forgotten.

McCain ended up losing the state to Barack Obama by 16 points in last year's presidential election.

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WASHINGTON (CNN) – In her new memoir, "Going Rogue," Palin accuses two national reporters of trying to corner her young daughter Piper on the street in Juneau for an interview several months after the presidential campaign ended - a charge both the journalists and a former Palin campaign aide reject.

Palin writes in her book that after the race ended, "members of the national press continued to hang out in Alaska sniffing for tabloid stuff."

"In one early press conference we noticed that our local reporters were flanked by a couple of reporters from the Lower 48 who'd been hanging out around Juneau in search of material for their own Sarah Palin book," Palin writes. "We never shut our doors to anyone, so people of all kinds attended these press availabilities. But glancing along the side wall, I recognized these particular folks as the same ones who had cornered Piper on her walk home from Harborview Elementary School and talked to her for who knows how long about who knows what."

According to Palin, Piper returned home and told her mother: "Mom, remember those reporters who came on the campaign plane with us? You know, the ones Nicolle [Wallace] said didn't like us very much? They just interviewed me on the sidewalk." Palin adds after the incident, Piper was no longer allowed to walk to or from school by herself.

The journalists in question - Scott Conroy and Shushannah Walshe, authors of the newly-published book "Sarah from Alaska" - deny Palin's characterization. Both traveled with Palin on her campaign plane throughout her 2008 vice presidential bid, and the precocious Palin daughter frequently visited with the press corps and became friendly with them, a fact Palin boasts about in her memoir.

Conroy and Walshe said in a statement Tuesday that in the course of reporting for their book, they conducted 190 interviews, including sit-downs with Palin's parents and her husband Todd.

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WASHINGTON (CNN) – In her new memoir, "Going Rogue," Palin accuses two national reporters of trying to corner her young daughter Piper on the street in Juneau for an interview several months after the presidential campaign ended - a charge both the journalists and a former Palin campaign aide reject.

Palin writes in her book that after the race ended, "members of the national press continued to hang out in Alaska sniffing for tabloid stuff."

"In one early press conference we noticed that our local reporters were flanked by a couple of reporters from the Lower 48 who'd been hanging out around Juneau in search of material for their own Sarah Palin book," Palin writes. "We never shut our doors to anyone, so people of all kinds attended these press availabilities. But glancing along the side wall, I recognized these particular folks as the same ones who had cornered Piper on her walk home from Harborview Elementary School and talked to her for who knows how long about who knows what."

According to Palin, Piper returned home and told her mother: "Mom, remember those reporters who came on the campaign plane with us? You know, the ones Nicolle [Wallace] said didn't like us very much? They just interviewed me on the sidewalk." Palin adds after the incident, Piper was no longer allowed to walk to or from school by herself.

The journalists in question - Scott Conroy and Shushannah Walshe, authors of the newly-published book "Sarah from Alaska" - deny Palin's characterization. Both traveled with Palin on her campaign plane throughout her 2008 vice presidential bid, and the precocious Palin daughter frequently visited with the press corps and became friendly with them, a fact Palin boasts about in her memoir.

Conroy and Walshe said in a statement Tuesday that in the course of reporting for their book, they conducted 190 interviews, including sit-downs with Palin's parents and her husband Todd.

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(CNN) - Sarah Palin's image is everywhere as she launches a highly-anticipated book tour this week, but the former Alaska governor is unhappy with at least one media organization's depiction of her.

Palin took aim at Newsweek's eye-catching cover this week that shows the former vice presidential candidate in her running outfit - an image that was apparently lifted from a Runner's World photo shoot months ago. Writing on her Facebook page Monday night, Palin said the depiction is flat out "sexist, and oh-so-expected."

"The choice of photo for the cover of this week's Newsweek is unfortunate. When it comes to Sarah Palin, this 'news' magazine has relished focusing on the irrelevant rather than the relevant," Palin wrote. "The out-of-context Newsweek approach is sexist, and oh-so-expected by now."

"If anyone can learn anything from it: it shows why you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, gender, or color of skin. The media will do anything to draw attention – even if out of context," Palin also said.

The photo is accompanied by text that states "How Do You Solve A Problem Like Sarah? She's bad news for the GOP - and for everybody else too."

Palin has held back few punches at the media in the initial stages of her publicity tour. The former governor slammed the Associated Press for its recent fact check that took issue with several of the memoir's contentions and, in her Oprah appearance that aired Monday, Palin slammed the way the media treated her family during the campaign.

The Alaska Republican also doesn't hold back in her book, writing at one point, "I had been out of journalism for a long time, and it was pretty obvious the rules had changed. I felt sick about the depths to which some in the press had apparently sunk, not because it was unfair to me and John, but because it was unfair to the American electorate."

UPDATE: Newsweek editor Jon Meacham is defending the image the magazine chose for its cover.

"We chose the most interesting image available to us to illustrate the theme of the cover, which is what we always try to do," he told CNN Tuesday. "We apply the same test to photographs of any public figure, male or female: does the image convey what we are saying? That is a gender-neutral standard."

Follow Alex Mooney on Twitter: @awmooneycnn