In two years, will it be Obama vs. Palin?

Let’s make believe it’s August 2012, just a few months before the next presidential election. More than likely, President Obama will be the Democratic Party’s candidate, seeking re-election. Who will lead the Republican Party ticket? Get ready for Sarah Palin.

Anybody and everybody scoffs at the thought of Palin running for president. But if you pay attention to all the low-key activities taking place all over the U.S. and ignore the former governor of Alaska, you are running away from reality. This isn’t an endorsement of Palin for president, but don’t count her out as a candidate.

Let’s start with campaign endorsements. To date, Palin has announced her support for 164 candidates running for everything from dogcatcher to governor. Her track record to date? Ten Palin-backed candidates have won their party nominations and six have lost, with 18 contests coming up soon.

Candidates for office love endorsements. In places like Levittown, would-be politicians value getting the backing of the police, firefighters’ and teachers’ unions. But in, say, Omaha, Neb., getting Sarah Palin to endorse you is a really big deal. Endorsements buy loyalty, and Palin isn’t giving her seal of approval just to gratify her ego.

The so-called Tea Party is a very busy bunch of people who have clusters of support all over the country. To date, the only person who seems to have won the love and affection of the Tea Party people is ... Sarah Palin. When she shows up at a Tea Party rally, it gets highlighted on Fox News, CNN and lots of other networks. For now, Palin has that group in her hip pocket.

At this point in time, a small handful of Republican Party celebrities, like Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee, have been raising modest amounts of money for 2012. How many of them are giving money to other candidates for office? Maybe a few, but Palin has her own political action committee, which has an estimated $1 million in the bank. Every check she writes gets a lot of love in return.