Sarah Palin, the telegenic Republican who exasperates and delights US voters about equally, is dropping ever more hints of a Presidential bid, including a visit on Saturday to the key state of Iowa, which holds the first primary contest of the campaign.
The official purpose of her trip to suburban Des Moines is to promote her new book, America by Heart: Reflections on Family, Faith and Flag. But Democratic and Republican insiders will search for every possible hint of whether she will seek the nomination to challenge President Barack Obama in 2012.
Ms Palin, the former Alaska governor and 2008 vice-presidential nominee, has fed such speculation in recent days. She told ABC’s Barbara Walters she thinks she could beat Mr Obama, adding, “I’m looking at the lay of the land now.”
In a separate interview, Mr Obama told Ms Walters: “I don’t think about Sarah Palin.” He added that Ms Palin has “a strong base of support in the Republican Party, and I respect those skills”.
Ms Palin will attend a second book-signing event next week in Iowa, which holds the country’s first Presidential caucuses in 13 months.
Some political pros suspect it is a tease, a way for Ms Palin to keep drawing big crowds to her lucrative TV show and books while avoiding the nitty-gritty work of organising a national campaign, wooing hard-to-impress caucus voters and raising millions of dollars.
Others warn against underestimating her ambition or her ability to snatch the Republican nomination from a dozen men who covet it.
“She may run away with it, and that’s something everybody has to be prepared for,” said Mike Huckabee, who won the 2008 Iowa Republican caucus. He is considering another Presidential run, and some feel he wants to set high expectations for a possible rival.
While Ms Palin’s fans are loyal and legion, the prospect of her running for President alarms some Republicans. They think Ms Palin is too polarising and too inexperienced to defeat Mr Obama, even if Republicans in general can maintain the momentum of their powerful performance in this month’s midterm elections.
Her foreign policy gaffe on Wednesday kept the question alive. She declared on Glenn Beck’s syndicated radio show that the US has to stand with “our North Korean allies” in connection with tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
Her mistake was quickly corrected by her host. But it drew immediate fire from liberal bloggers who cited it as an example of her lack of foreign policy expertise. Newspapers in Asia and Europe echoed the criticism. The Times of India said Ms Palin “did it again,” while the Daily Mail said she “may want to brush up on her geography.”
The conservative US website The Weekly Standard went to Ms Palin’s defence, pointing out that “she correctly identified North Korea as our enemy literally eight seconds before the mix-up”.
In the US, polls show voters deeply divided over Ms Palin. A recent AP-GfK poll found 46 per cent of Americans view her favourably while 49 per cent hold an unfavourable view. The portion holding a “very unfavourable” view heavily outweighs those with a “very favourable” view.
In the poll, 79 per cent of self-described Republicans said they likes Ms Palin. That suggests she might do well in Republican primaries, although she has some work to do in the Midwestern state of Iowa.
In exit polls of Iowa Republicans who voted this month, 21 per cent said they would like to see Huckabee win the 2012 caucus. Another 21 per cent named Mitt Romney, and 18 per cent picked Ms Palin.
Ms Palin has given mixed signals about her intentions. She recently granted interviews to ABC and The New York Times, even as she vowed not to speak again to CBS News anchor Katie Couric, whose 2008 interview left Palin seemingly unable or unwilling to name a newspaper or magazine she reads regularly.
It is possible, however, that Ms Palin’s high visibility, boosted by frequent appearances on Fox News and her new TV show on the TLC cable network, Sarah Palin’s Alaska, will let her play by different rules.