Give Palin a billion dollars to run her own campaign machine as the Presidential nominee of the Republican party, and she would win.I believe this was a major factor in her decision not to run.
IMO, TPTB in the GOP-e made it known that they would sabotage her fundraising efforts. While it's nice to pretend she could achieve her goals by appealing to the grass roots, the reality of modern politics is that MASSIVE amounts of money are necessary in a Presidential race.
It's also quite possible that some big money was available, but with strings attached. Governor Palin doesn't strike me as the sort that would be willing to play the "scratch-my-back-and-I'll-scratch-yours" game.
Which, if true, probably precludes her from national politics.
Governor Palin was running for the 2012 nomination and successfully, her bus tour was successfully running parallel to Romney’s total domination of the party primary.
Just as her campaign found the peak moment to announce, Perry came in and broke it, he stayed just long enough to steal her position as the “non-Romney” and as the only other giant in the race, and then he rolled over for Romney and the party and went back home, with never having hurt Romney, or threatening him.
We have seen the GOP do this since she was chosen in 2008, yet she still manages to retain the title of the most powerful republican in America, and the most powerful endorsement in history and of either party.