I like Palin, but if she wasn’t VP nominee she wouldn’t be a front runner. What could’ve happened to make her famous between 08 and 11? Now, if she ran, people would’ve gotten to know her and like her, but at this point in the 12 race, she’d be largely unknown.
It would’ve been a different situation, but she still would’ve been a top tier candidate. In that instance, she’d be a successful and outspoken Governor into her 2nd term, and our most prominent woman in such an office. Since most of us tend to look to Governors for leaders (and for Presidents), she’d have been a natural. She had been, of course, largely ignored by the media (as they tend to do with those who aren’t White males in the GOP), and would never have been the central focus for destruction (or rather, they wouldn’t have had enough time to do so, which was redoubled with great effort AFTER the ‘08 election in order to make her thoroughly unviable for ‘12, which has failed).