Since resigning as Governor of Alaska, 18 months before her term was due to finish, Sarah Palin has turned herself into one massive money making brand. Sarah Inc has become a national industry. While courting the Tea Party, Palin hasn't ruled out running for president in 2012. Maybe she will, but the fact that she is making so much money might throw up a few surprises.
New York magazine reports that Sarah Inc is going from strength to strength. "Over the past year, Palin has amassed a $12 million fortune and shows no sign of slowing down. Her memoir has so far sold more than 2.2 million copies, and Palin is planning a second book with HarperCollins. This January, she signed a three-year contributor deal with Fox News worth $1 million a year, according to people familiar with the deal. In March, Palin and Burnett sold her cable show to TLC for a reported $1 million per episode, of which Palin is said to take in about $250,000 for each of the eight installments. While she's waiting for her television career to begin in earnest, she's been busy on the speaker's circuit, having signed with the prestigious Washington Speakers Bureau. Palin commands $100,000 per speech, putting her in the same league as fellow Speakers Bureau clients Colin Powell, George W. Bush, and Rudy Giuliani. Since leaving office, she's scheduled speeches to the Daytona Chamber of Commerce; the Salina Area Chamber of Commerce; the Bowling Proprietors' Association of America; the Charity of Hope fund-raiser in Hamilton, Ontario; the Get Motivated Seminar in Beaumont, Texas; the Complete Woman Expo; the Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America; and the Sierra-Cascade Logging Conference. In February, she delivered the keynote address at the National Tea Party Convention in Nashville. Palin's $100,000 contract for the tea-party event-which drew fire from rival tea-party groups angry that Palin was cashing in at their expense-included $18,000 for private-jet travel for her and an entourage of five people, according to two people who've seen the contract."
That's extraordinary for someone who left Alaska with a 70% debt-to-GDP ratio,the highest state debt burden in the United States. With a debt ratio of 40%, California looks austere and conservative.
Will she run for president? There's two ways of looking at it. On one hand, you could argue she won't do it because she would have to take a pay cut. But then, she might just go there. Still, I suspect by then she would have pissed off too many people in the GOP. So if she does do it, she'll run as an independent.
no comment untill now