Sarah Palin in 2012

Palin energized the Republican base in 2008 when she was chosen for the Vice Presidential candidate, largely because she’s renowned as a member of the Religious Right.  John McCain’s credentials in this area were sketchy, so at the time, it was considered a shrewd move by some.  By others, it was considered a horrible, horrible decision.  The reasons are now part of pop culture, immortalized by Tina Fey, whose pitch-perfect imitation skewered the Veep-not-to-be by simply reading things Palin had said word-for-word, thanks to a now-famous interview with Katie Couric – who isn’t known for her hard-hitting journalism – when Palin was pitched a few basic softballs and whiffed everytime.  She emerged from the interview accusing Katie Couric of “Gotcha Journalism,” or trying to trip her up.  Even the most skilled television anchor couldn’t have intentionally pulled word salad like that from any other politicians mouth.
Eventually, Palin started making statements without consulting the McCain campaign, and started pounding home her own personal agenda.  As the McCain campaign began to self-destruct, Palin came out on top, and when the election was over, the McCain aides were furious, and skewered her in the media every chance they got.  Palin, who was described as “Going Rogue,” has gone on to write a memoir of the same title, which she is now selling across the nation.
And, not surprisingly, I suppose, she’s now seen as a frontrunner for the Republican candidacy in 2012.  In this bloggers opinion, it will not happen, for a number of reasons, but she will have an effect on the outcome, and here’s how:
Despite her many, many gaffes, Palin emerged from the election extremely popular.  She has successfully painted herself as a family woman, or hockey-mom, and savagely defended her daughter’s out-of-wedlock pregnancy when the press decided to attack the 18-year-old, and Palin came out looking classy and unhypocritical in the face of a sleazy press.
After the election, facing tons of lawsuits for many, many ethics complaints filed against her, Palin resigned from her Governorship of Alaska, which, depending on who you talk to, did irreversible damage to her chances in 2012, or freed her up to do some campaigning.
Regardless of her base of popularity, she’s got a pretty rough road ahead of her in terms of Presidential Politics.  Her experience on foreign policy is still close to nil, and despite a large population of religious right in the country, it’s really not enough to win her an election.  And outside that bloc, she’s not loved.  An ABC – Washington Post Poll in July ‘09 found that 53% of Americans view her unfavorably, whereas only 40% of Americans have a positive view of her.  That’s a pretty strong indicator that her nomination as Republican candidate would be a suicidal move on the part of the party.  It is much more likely that the Republicans will abandon the George Bush, shoot-from-the-hip style of politics, and go for a more even-handed, practical approach, more akin to Obama, and will nominate conservative-valued but pragmatic politicians like Mitt Romney, Bobby Jindal, or Mike Huckabee.
In fact, Mike Huckabee could have a much better chance at the nomination were it not for Palin.  Huckabee, a competent politician who is much more well-versed in international politics than Palin, may lose a ton of votes to his fellow former Governor, simply because she has a more visceral appeal to the right.  Huckabee, a former Baptist minister, could leverage Palin’s instability into a boost of ratings for himself, but he’s got a long way to go to catch up with her.