REGARDLESS OF WHO WINS...:

Is Sarah Palin preparing for 2012? (ROGER SIMON, 10/28/08, Politico)

Sarah Palin may soon be free. Soon, she may not have the millstone of John McCain around her neck. And she can begin her race for president in 2012.

Some are already talking about it. In careful terms. If John McCain loses next week, Sarah Palin “has absolutely earned a right to run in 2012,” says Greg Mueller, who was a senior aide in the presidential campaigns of Pat Buchanan and Steve Forbes. Mueller says Palin has given conservatives “hope” and “something to believe in.”

And even if the McCain-Palin ticket does win on Nov. 4 — and Mueller says it could — “if McCain decides to serve for just one term, Sarah Palin as the economic populist and traditional American values candidates will be very appealing by the time we get to 2012.”

...she's the person most likely to be taking the oath of office in January 2013. Maverick is old; Democrats don't get re-elected; and Jeb is the only Republican who'd outrank her in the primaries.

Posted by Orrin Judd at October 28, 2008 7:49 AM