Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the first Republican woman vice presidential candidate, will be dining with President Barack Obama over the weekend in Washington, D.C. when the Alfalfa Club holds it customary black-tie banquet.

"The Alfalfa dinner, yes, in fact that's because President Obama is scheduled to be there," the 44-year old governor is quoted by ABC as saying on Wednesday. "And how often will I have an opportunity to have dinner with the president?"

The Alfalfa Club is an elite group founded in1913 for the sole purpose of holding a banquet on the last Saturday of January of every year. It has about 200 members and holds a presidential nomination every banquet just for entertainment. Past "candidates" have included Ronald Reagan and former President George W. Bush.

Palin, a mother of five including one son with Down Syndrome, has been reported to be a potential candidate for the White House in 2012. She has repeatedly downplayed speculation, and told FOX that her recently formed political action committee , SarahPAC, is "helpful to have a PAC so when I'm invited to things, even like to speak at the Lincoln Day dinner in Fairbanks, to have the PAC pay for that instead of have the state pay for that because that could be considered quasi-political."

The first-term governor is credited with renewing enthusiasm for the GOP, but she suffered falling poll ratings in the last weeks of the presidential race. Critics had said she falsely claimed to have opposed a controversial project called "the Bridge to Nowhere," and tried to stifle a three-month long ethics investigation into her dismissal of an Alaska state official.

She led a campaign beleaguered until the end, having had to defend herself in her first TV interview after the elections from anonymous aides of her former running mate, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), who said, among other things, that she did not know that Africa was a continent and not a country. She also continued to deny a report saying the Republican Party had spent f $150,000 on clothes, accessories and makeup for her during the campaign.