Page 3 Profile: Sarah Palin, hockey mom

Sarah Palin, pictured here in 2011 (Getty images)

Oh no, what now?

Undeterred by the crushing electoral defeat of ideological allies the Tea Party last year and her own humiliation as the Republican nominee for Vice-President in 2008, the GOP’s favourite extrovert has said she will consider running for the Senate next year.

Seriously?!

Unfortunately, yes. Seemingly oblivious to her status as a political punch line and unaware that her reality show – Sarah Palin’s Alaska – torpedoed her chances of ever again entering serious debate, the self-confessed ‘hockey mom’ said she might stand in 2014.

Palin told right-wing pundit and radio host Sean Hannity that she has in fact “considered” a Senate run “because people have requested me considering it,” which is undeniably sound logic.

OK, so there’s still hope?

Well the 49-year-old former Governor of Alaska is nothing if not a tease, and it would be unsurprising if the rumours came to nothing. Learning from her long-trailed but never-real 2012 Presidential run, American analysts have been quick to point out Palin’s lack of commitment.

Political Wire editor Taegan Goddard, poked fun at her decision to resign one year before her term ended as governor in 2010.

He wrote: “I wonder if Sarah Palin realises it’s a six-year term?”

Is she still a darling of the Republican right?

Palin has been a poster girl for the ‘wholesome family values’ wing of the American right but, complicating proceedings, she hinted last month that she may be tempted to compete for libertarian votes under the ‘Freedom Party’ banner.

“If the GOP continues to back away from the planks in our platform, from the principles that built this party, then yeah, more and more of us are going to start saying, ‘You know, what’s wrong with being independent?’” she told Fox News.

Now there’s a question.