Last October, top White House adviser David Plouffe told reporters of the 2012 GOP contest: "These guys are going to be running through hoops to please the far-right folks who are kind of the acolytes of Sarah Palin. Now maybe she’ll be running herself. Something tells me we won’t get that lucky."
He might be wrong. The former Alaska governor launches a tour of the Northeast this weekend in what could be the first sign of a presidential run.