I disagree with you, please take the time to read my analysis.
I think she is playing it exactly as she should. Look what happens when she is in? She is the instant front runner, and she then gets hit by both the republicans and democrats. By standing by we have already seen newt, gone, perry faultering, Romney not surging, Bauccman down. And what has that cost her financially or popularity wise???? Nothing, not a dime.
It becomes all about her when she does run. There was a great book that came out about baseball a few years back called moneyball. It told how the scouts of the A’s started looking at statistics through a different lens then they had before. The asked, what is the outcome of the game? To have more players cross home plate than the other team. The scouts had focused on players with the highest Hit ratio. But they were not looking at ALL the stats. What they figured out was, the players that had statistically better discernment to not swing at the full count and take a walk. Statistically these players were just as valuable to crossing the plate in the game as guys that got hits to get on base. So the A’s began picking these guys up for cheap, (they got paid less since the value was on hits not walks). They began to statistically score more RBI’s because more guys got on base.
ALL that is to say is this. Let’s look at how Palin as played the game with the resources and opportunities available to her. Since she left the VP campaign,She signed a huge multimillion dollar book deal. Book tours. Fox news Channel news commentator deal. A series of documentaries on Alaska. (Again multimillion) .... She has created a powerful grass roots army that lie in wait for her next orders. She has more political capital than any other person in politics in the last 25 years. NOW here is the question for you....
1. Have you seen ANY VP (winning, Let alone Losing) candidate still a daily household name 3 years after the election?
2. When you think about the strengths of the political game, and you read the moves above, has she played out all of her opportunities to the hilt? Or squandered them?
3. Does she have the political, and financial backing to wait out to the last minute to make her move?
Adding all of those factors up. Is this a person that has the leg strength to rope-a-dope her opponents? The answer as I see it is.... YES.
Last minute??? You mean election day 6:59 AM before the polls open ?? What about the write-in ballots sent in before that? She doesnt need those?
Have you seen ANY VP (winning, Let alone Losing) candidate still a daily household name 3 years after the election?”
Absolutely.
Bill Miller, Goldwater’s running mate in ‘64 was huge on the American scene for decades after that narrow loss to LBJ....
As to your second question, she's made plenty of money and I begrudge her none of it. In that manner she's done well, but she has lost influence among the electorate. A majority of GOP voters do not wish to see her as the nominee. That number is not a sign of her political success.
Your 3rd question is interesting in that there's no way to know, but it's curious that Chris Christie seems to have a plethora of backers with $$$ urging him to run while Palin is limited to the websites touting her cause.
I note that Moneyball has not produced a world series winner.It has made the As a sometime contender,but has not shown the ability compete with the big money players. It's a method for small market teams to offer the appearance of competition. I'm a Mets fan and I know that's what Alderson is trying to do and why he won't sign Reyes.
Finally, while there may be some validity to her not wanting to be savaged by Reps as well as Dems, she is not going to enter a race with everyone else gone. The survivors, Romney, Perry, Cain will savage her as a johnny come lately. They will attack her for resigning, doing reality TV, sitting on the sidelines while they fought for the principles of the party. They will claim that her failure to declare early was a result of her fear of losing early.
She's not going to run. If I'm wrong,fine. I'll deal with it, but if she keeps telling everyone that she hasn't made up her mind, she's being beyond disingenuous.