Normally I would agree about the Senate being a bad place, but the idea isn’t to have her there for long, that is one reason Obama was an a exception, he wasn’t there long enough to be perceived as coming down with ‘Beltway Fever’.
I think she’ll take Krauthammer’s advice and get educated on foreign policy, do a lot of traveling, make speeches, etc...just like RWR did after his term as gov of California.
There is no senate seat she can run for. Begich isn’t up until 2014.
I don’t see how she can win the presidency absent a huge shift in public perceptions about her.