Absolutely NO way she could avoid a comment on this topic. Her ‘no comment’ would be shaped and twisted to mean everything negative the question posers would want it to mean. She handled this as well as could be expected by tying two separate actions together. She can't eat the whole moose in one bite but she can eat it one bite at a time.
Mrs. Palin is a civilian, as are the majority of Americans. Aside from her political aspirations, there is no expectation of a mandatory response on any given subject from me, although I may be in the minority on that belief.
In the same breath, who is she, or anyone else in this country, to deny any American citizen the right to express themselves in this manner? She may feel that it is prudent to denigrate American citizens for expressing themselves according to their First Amendment rights, but I'm personally sick and tired of ALL politicians believing that it is their responsibility to tell us how we should think.