Lots of talk about Sarah Palin's future in regards to 2012 and a possible Presidential run.

Given her status as the darling of the evangelicial right wing of the Republican Party, she certainly has a base to support such a bid.  However a couple of things work against her.

-The history of losing VP candidates going on to win their party's Presidential nomination in later elections is pretty poor.  Since 1960, there have been only two such cases. In 1976, Bob Dole was Gerald Ford's running mate and they lost to Carter/Mondale.  It was not until 1996, that Dole won the Rep. Presidential nomination and lost to Clinton.  The only other losing VP candidate to go on to win his party's nomination was Walter Mondale in 1984(and he had, of course, actually served as VP from 76-80 under Carter).  So this metric alone makes it very unlikely that Palin will be the 2012 Rep. Presidential nominee.

-There is also the  fact that the Palin also faces some political difficulty regarding her "ethics" problems in Alaska.  Given the forgiving nature of Alaska voters(who apparently have re-elected Ted Stevens, a convicted felon), it is possible she might survive and be re-elected as Gov.(or possibly be elected senator to replace Stevens).  However, the stories that are now coming to light about how unknowledgable she was about so many topics(NAFTA, Africia and her clothes spending spree) might be enough for Alaskans to say see ya next time around.

That being said, if she were to manage to win the nomination in '12, her ultra right wings views on so many topics(right to choose, equal pay for equal work,Anwr,  Iraq and her belief that man walked with the dinosaurs, etc) will utterly repel most moderate Republicians, Independants and every Democrat in the country.  Of course, that will still leave her Joe the Plumber.