It has been a busy month for Sarah Palin. The Alaska governor celebrated her 45th birthday last week and continued to feature in a raft of news stories despite what now seems a calculated effort on her part to minimise publicity. According to Republicans I've been talking to, this is the best strategy for her if she is to establish herself as a serious contender for the party's presidential nomination in 2012. At present she is a pop culture phenomenon, rather than the serious political force that her admirers thought she would become. But that can change.