It’s time for Sarah Palin to step up to the plate

Sarah Palin used a 9/11 anniversary rally in Anchorage, Alaska on Saturday to tease her followers once again about whether she is planning to run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012.

Accompanied by the far-right Fox TV host Glenn Beck, she told the crowd: "Evidently, I'm supposed to make a big announcement here... maybe about the 2012 election or something."

Beck himself joined in the fun – increasing speculation that the two might consider running on a joint ticket – when he told the 4,000-strong rally: "I'd like to announce that in 2012, we will both be... voting."

But Palin has a date in her diary later this week that suggests the game-playing will soon have to stop.

She is to be the main speaker at a $100-a-plate Republican dinner in Des Moines, Iowa on Friday. And as all of Washington knows, the race for the White House begins in Iowa.

Although the state caucus doesn't take place until February 2012, it is traditional for potential candidates to start courting support up to 18 months beforehand – in other words, now.

Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor who lost out to John McCain in 2008, has already set up a skeleton campaign team in Iowa and another potential Republican contender, Tim Pawlenty, Governor of Minnesota, has made several visits to the state. If Palin wants to run for real against Obama, instead of just kidding about it, she needs to make her move.

But before her adoring fans get carried away, does the super-populist Palin really stand a chance? Only this month, a 60 Minutes/Vanity Fair poll revealed that 59 per cent of voters feel Palin is unfit to be an effective commander-in-chief.

That’s assuming she might go the distance. Chicago Tribune columnist Steve Chapman is one of those who question whether Palin can even get beyond the primaries.

However well her ultra-conservative views might play in contrast to Obama's policies, Chapman argues, she will find it hard if not impossible to compete with Romney, Pawlenty or any of the other Republican heavyweights likely to stand.

"It's one thing to tweet your thoughts about Obama and Nancy Pelosi or endorse candidates on Facebook while hiding from sceptical reporters," writes Chapman. "It's another to match wits on issues with smart, well-informed, politically savvy conservative opponents who are determined to expose your shortcomings." ·