So far, at least, John McCain's camp can't be accused of overexposing Sarah Palin.

Two days after McCain shocked the political world by tapping her as his running mate, she was nowhere to be found on the Sunday talk-show circuit. On Monday, she was kept under wraps as word surfaced of the pregnancy of her 17-year-old unwed daughter.

Today, Palin's scheduled appearance in St. Paul, Minn., as guest of honor at an afternoon gathering by the Republican National Coalition for Life was canceled. And that didn't sit well with a leading social conservative.

Phyllis Schlafly, who in the mid-1970s almost single-handedly derailed what had been the expected ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, told ABC News that a McCain aide notified her late Monday that Palin would not be attending the event.

"I think this is clearly somebody in the McCain campaign who doesn't understand where the votes are coming from," Schlafly said. "They only told me this at 10 o'clock last night, and it was a call from somebody down the line in the McCain campaign."

She added: "The pro-lifers who paid $95 to come to this event because of Sarah Palin are going to be very unhappy."

Palin's appearance was set up before she was picked for the GOP's national ticket, McCain aides stressed. And her spokeswoman, Maria Comella, told ABC that Palin needed to pass on the antiabortion event to work on her speech to the Republican National Convention.

-- Don Frederick

Photo credit: Los Angeles Times Alan Hagman