I believe this picture was taken on March 7, 2008 on the day of the interview with CBS 11 KTVA reporter Andrea Gusty when Palin went public with her pregnancy. I believe the interview took place in the Alaska Legislature. The story is listed on YouTube as:
Governor Palin: pregnancy won't interfere with duties
More below the fold...
She clearly looks very pregnant, on that we can all agree. Since this pregnancy was news to everyone on March 7, 2008, we can assume this interview did not happen before March 6, 2008. Papers, at that time, say that she's 7 mos pregnant.
"Gosh she looks good," Wray said of Palin. "I feel like a hippopotamus and I look like one too.
The March 6, 2008 Anchorage Daily News:
Secret's out: Palin pregnant SEVEN MONTHS ALONG: Even her staff was unaware that the first family was expecting a fifth child.
What their eyes are saying on March 6, 2008 and what this picture shows, if it indeed was taken at the time of her interview with Andrea Gusty on March 7, 2008, is that in 2 days her pregnancy went from being 'unnoticeable' to the 'clearly pregnant' as shown in the picture of question.
If the photo in question shows her on March 7, 2008, then at the time of her flight back to Alaska from Texas on April 18, 2008 she would have been 5 wks more advanced in appearance.
The carpet in the photo along with the wainscoting appear very similar to the carpet and wainscoting shown at 2 mins 20 secs into this report by KTVA at the Alaska State Legislature.
A search through archives appears to show that Andrea Gusty's next report doesn't occur until April 4, 2008 under the title "5 Years in Iraq"
On June 5, 2008 The Bristol Bay Times reports under the headline:
The Aniak Anchor
MATT NEVALA
June 05, 2008 at 9:11AM AKST
This week, after nearly 2-1/2 years working as a KTVA reporter, she’s poised to make Alaska broadcasting history. Gusty will take over as KTVA’s weekend news anchor, and it’s believed she’ll be the second Alaska Native woman to fill an Anchorage anchor’s chair and the first since Bettles’ Shannon McConnell, now executive director of the Doyon Foundation, anchored the KIMO-Channel 13 news in the early 1980s.
I wish her the best of luck in her new role