Sarah Palin

Conservative diva Sarah Palin won't appear on the 2012 presidential ballot but will remain on the national stage, revelling in her star power as the race to the White House heats up, analysts say.
The 2008 vice presidential candidate and Tea Party superstar put to rest months of speculation this week when she said she would not seek to replace President Barack Obama but vowed to remain his bugbear.
'I will continue driving the discussion for freedom and free markets, including in the race for President,' Palin said in a statement on Thursday, in which she also vowed to help Republican congressional candidates.
'We must reduce tax burdens and onerous regulations that kill American industry, and our candidates must always push to minimise government to strengthen the economy and allow the private sector to create jobs,' she added.
But some experts believe Palin - who stepped down as governor of Alaska in 2009 after just two and a half years - is more interested in the fame and money of media stardom than the drudgery of day-to-day politics.
'I don't think she was really interested in running because it's just too much work. I think she made the right decision,' said Norman Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute.
'What we don't know and what will be interesting to watch is, now that she passed the point of flirting for the position, whether she can retain her cachet, her star quality, and do what she's been doing, what (she) likes so much, which is giving a lot of speeches and making a lot of money.
'My guess is that her cachet is going to decline.'
In the three years since she burst on to the national stage as Senator John McCain's surprise running mate, Palin has become a paid contributor on Fox News, a highly sought-after public speaker and a bestselling memoir author.
For months she had stoked speculation about her plans with a campaign-like bus tour, a private dinner with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem and a highly publicised appearance at a Washington motorcycle rally.
But her approval ratings have slid during her time in the spotlight, and a McClatchy-Marist poll last month found that 72 per cent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents did not want her to run.
A Quinnipiac poll this week found Palin had just nine per cent support among the Republican candidates, less than half the 22 per cent enjoyed by former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, the current front-runner.
'I think she measured the field and, being realistic, she must have realised the extreme difficulty of securing the nomination,' said Stephen Hess of the Brookings Institution, a Washington DC think tank.
'She knows how much you need in terms of staff, in terms of raising money. It's a big business. She was just simply too late to create the infrastructure she would have needed to run.'
John Pitney, a political science professor at Claremont-McKenna College, said polls had long shown 'that a lot of Republicans didn't want her to run and wouldn't support her'.
'But by holding open the possibility of a presidential race she managed to increase public attention, and Sarah Palin loves public attention.'
Few expect Palin to have a major effect on the campaign, even if she endorses one of the candidates.
'I don't think she'll be a major influence. She'll make a lot of media appearances and become even wealthier than she already is,' Pitney said.
Palin's announcement came two days after New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, another popular Republican, also said he would not run, virtually ensuring that the roster of Republican candidates is set.
And with months to go before the first crucial nomination contests, the Quinnipiac poll found that 18 per cent of Republican voters still haven't chosen a candidate, indicating that the race is still wide open.