by Chris Bodenner
Gabriel Sherman suggests that Palin's upcoming Des Moines speech is a head fake:
For Palin, running for president is partly a kind of profit center. "It’s an industry to write about Sarah and put her on TV,” John Coale, the prominent Democratic lawyer and husband of Fox News anchor Greta Van Susteren, told me. “We’re two years into this and people are still fascinated by her. But, if she doesn’t run, does she maintain this interest?”
In fact, in conversations in recent days with Republicans and advisers familiar with her thinking, there has been a mounting feeling that Palin probably won’t run for president not that anyone would go so far as to predict what the Mama Grizzly-in-Chief is going to do with certainty. “They're not ramping up, and they’re not adding staff. My guess is she's not going to run,” said one Republican close to her, who, like others in Palin-world, insisted on anonymity to discuss private conversations.
“I don't think she's going to run for anything,” added another adviser. “My reasoning is as follows: She hated what was happening in public office. She was getting pilloried, she was going broke, she really didn't like it it's why she left. She hated her life. She hated it. Now she has the world by the tail. She's speaking to adoring crowds. Maybe only 20 percent of the people like her, but they adore her. I would be stunned if she does it. I would give it 90 percent probability she doesn't run. ... She's smart enough to know the chances of getting elected is very, very slim. And she will get pilloried in the process. She likes her life up there, now she has the money she needs. She has the best of both worlds.”