Will Sarah Palin Make A Run?

John Heileman has a great piece in New York Magazine analyzing Sarah Palin's presidential aspirations:

Until not long ago, the only people who took seriously the notion that Palin would make a White House bid in 2012, let alone win the Republican nomination, were those who really do live at the unicorn ranch--and spend their time there huffing pixie dust. When Palin quit the Alaska governorship in 2009, her political career seemed over. And even after she resurrected herself, emerging through her media ubiquity and her aggressive endorsement strategy as arguably the most powerful figure in the GOP, much of the political world believed that she was animated by non-presidential motives. To further pad her bank account. To redeem her reputation. To turn herself into the party's preeminent kingmaker. Or possibly all three."

"But today the conventional wisdom about Palin is being revised again, nowhere more so than within the ranks of professional Republicans. Among two dozen senior strategists and operatives with whom I've spoken in recent days -- including many of those responsible for securing the nomination for the party's last three standard-bearers -- there is a growing consensus that Palin is running or setting herself up to run. All agreed that her entry would radically and fundamentally transform the race. Most averred that if she steps into the fray, she stands a reasonable chance of claiming the Republican prize. Indeed, more than one argued that she is already the de facto front-runner.

Read the whole thing, it's really good.

While I think that there is definitely an argument to be made that the Queen Mama Grizzly would/could run, I stand firmly by my assertion that she will not.

Being a "contributor" on Fox News and a paid-speaker-for-hire is an extremely lucrative business. As I've said here before, I think that it is clear that Palin left quit the governorship of Alaska because she recognized that there was money to be made in the private sector. It does not make any sense to me that Palin would leave said private sector, and all of the money/book-deals/television appearances that comes with it, to go back to the relative low-pay, no-thanks public service to which she had previously been a part.

Sarah Palin, as Heileman's article correctly points-out, is the Republican Kingmaker right now. I don't think that she is going to leave that spotlight any time too soon...