2) She gets in as a Republican, in which case the end of September is a semi-hard deadline.
2) She runs as an independent and/or third party, in which case she has to begin wooing parties that already have ballot access (Conservative, Reform, Libertarian, etc.) and/or start circulating petitions to get enough signatures to get on the ballot of the 50 States.
I have absolutely no idea which way she’s going to go, at this point, but it does seem to me (as someone who’d like to see her run) that a final go-no go decision point for a 2012 Presidential run really is coming up in the near future.
I think your first two possibilities are the likely ones. She will not win by going the third party route or running as independent route. There is not enough support or voters. Also, it would make Obama a winner since it will draw some people away from the Republican nominee.
We will all know in a few days if she is going to declare according to articles quoting her.
http://hotair.com/archives/2011/07/14/palin-suggests-august-or-september-might-be-right-for-an-announcement/
Sarah is running on the GOP ticket!
But just humor me on this independent thing...I think she could win as a indy, because I suspect some other left leaning fellow will run as a indy, it`s possible.
Actually, she told David Brody that the end of September or October is her timeframe for a decision. So it could be another month before she makes a decision.