Sarah Palin seemed to be perfectly content to be living in and governing Alaska until she was plucked out of virtually nowhere by John McCain to be his running mate in the 2008 US presidential election. People either loved Palin or hated her and it hardly seemed there was any middle ground anytime she was a subject of discussion either at the family dining table or in the Sunday morning news show.

She became a target of satire, her family was often vilified, yet she managed to hold her own in the rough-and-tumble of national politics. When Palin was picked by McCain, people thought a lot of things.

She would be bring to the Republicans the women’s vote, peeved as they were that Hillary Clinton was not selected as the Democratic presidential nominee. Having the Alaska Governor on board would help balance the Republican ticket which would go a long way in her selection many felt.

But soon a series of howlers and gaffes followed that made her the butt of jokes on late night shows and the media at large. People too started to have doubts about her while hardcore Republicans stood by Palin. Something of a dysfunctional did not help her cause but she gamely plugged on.

It took Palin to get Tina Fey back on Saturday Night Live and the comedienne made the most of her uncanny resemblance to the candidate highlighting her deficiencies. But Palin has always plowed her own furrow and she has refused to be cowed down. In fact, there is talk after her returning to the national spotlight politically as the Republican presidential candidate when the next elections are due in 2012.

Given the time between the last elections and the next one, many hope she will have matured politically and be able to prove to be a suitable candidate. She may not have been ready this time around and with something of a pro-Obama wave, those odds were just too hard to overturn, McCain or not.

With a dearth of candidates at least right now on the Republican horizon and with Palin having been in the limelight in the last election, do not be surprised if this shoot-from-the-hip lady actually manages to pull off an upset.

Her story follows and shows she has the grit and the mettle to prove she has what it takes in the next go-round.

Dave Nelson