Palin hints at White House run as Going Rogue lands

Sarah Palin's memoir hit bookstores today - and after a weekend in which the public lapped up a flood of juicy excerpts leaked by the media, talk has turned to the possibility that the former Alaska governor will run for the White House in 2012.

Yesterday, in an interview to promote Going Rogue, Palin initially tried to shrug off talk of a shot at the US presidency by telling Oprah Winfrey that it was "not even on my radar". Yet her round-about answers on that show - and leaks ahead of her interview with Barbara Walters which airs today - have left many pundits speculating whether the book launch signals the start of her presidential campaign.

Palin looked relaxed and confident in the pre-recorded, hour-long interview with Winfrey. She even spoke in full sentences, in contrast to the incomplete and sometimes nonsensical replies for which she was lampooned during last year's presidential race.

When Winfrey asked Palin why she had resigned as governor of Alaska, Palin answered by quoting her father Charles Heath. At the time of her resignation in July, Heath said that his daughter was not "retreating, she's reloading!" So was Palin "reloading" for the next presidential race in 2010, asked Oprah.

"I'm concentrating on 2010, making sure we have the issues tackled for all Americans," was Palin's non-reply.

Winfrey fired back with: "But would you have told me even if you were thinking of it?"

"No, I wouldn't," Palin admitted.

When Winfrey pressed her again whether she was contemplating the 2012 Republican nomination, she said: "It's not on my radar screen right now."

The round-about reply has left many speculating that Palin is still eyeing a White House run in three years' time.

The suggestion is reinforced by Palin's reported answers in an interview with ABC's Barbara Walters, which airs today. Again, Palin insists in the five-part interview that running for president in 2012 "isn't on my radar screen". But, she adds, no one can "predict what will happen in a few years. My ambition if you will, my desire, is to help our country in whatever role that may be, and I cannot predict what that will be, what doors would be open in the year 2012."

Will Palin play a major role, Walters asks. "If people will have me, I will," Palin replies.

Palin's highly publicised interview with Oprah Winfrey had the potential to be heated, given that the influential talkshow host publicly backed Barack Obama in last year's presidential election. Yet the atmosphere was more mutual love-in than spiky, with Winfrey embracing Palin on set.

At the end of the interview Palin even tried to give Winfrey a fist-bump on the way out, though Winfrey avoided it by patting the Republican's hand instead. Then, with the cameras still rolling, the pair posed for publicity photos.

Palin's magnanimity even extended to Levi Johnston, the estranged father of her baby grandson. She lamented Johnston's recent model assignment for Playgirl magazine which she described as "porn". The path Johnston was taking was "heartbreaking", she added. "He's a teenager. I don't think he realises quite yet what it is that he is being handled and orchestrated around."  ·