Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s smiling face was beaming over San Francisco’s Castro District today, after the conservative Liberty and Freedom Foundation decided to unveil a billboard at the corner of Market and Castro to push her visit next week to the South Bay.

As our Chronicle comrade Carolyn Lochhead reported earlier this week, Palin will be speaking at the San Jose Center for the Performing Arts on Oct. 14. Promoters of her event (there’s still tickets) said they could think of no better place to remind about her visit than in the shadow of the Castro’s landmark rainbow flag; they unveiled the Palin sign today in a ceremony pushed by conservative radio station KSFO 560 AM.

“The Castro is supposed to be about a message of tolerance, and we hope that tradition stays,” Victor Cocchia, executive director of Liberty and Freedom Foundation told us. “We were looking for a place to spend our ad dollars, and this came up..and we thought, “That’s what this is all about.”

But let’s get real: some progressives and Democrats might see it differently — as in a thumb in the eye. Palin, a possible 2012 GOP presidential candidate and tea party darling, isn’t exactly the LGBT community’s cup of tea, with her regular statements about traditional marriage.

Cocchia says “there’s so much division in the country. It’s my side against yours — and as conservatives, we can’t keep going just to our enclaves. We need to reach areas that are traditionally liberal,” he said.

“Hopefully, people will listen with an open mind…at least they heard it straight from us.”

Just how straight is still to be determined. Any bets on how long the sign will last at the Castro’s ground zero?