If you thought you'd get a reprieve from Sarah Palin -- the woman no one had ever heard of prior to August 25th, 2008 -- think again. The Alaska governor is looking more and more certain to challenge Barack Obama in 2012.

She was a close runner-up to Barack Obama for Time Magazine's "Person of the Year," along with Hank Paulson, Nicolas Sarkozy and the Chinese film director Zhang Yimou. More than 60,000 people have signed up on TeamSarah.org, an umbrella website that unites pro-Palin fan clubs such as Catholics for Sarah, Texans for Palin and Small Business-Owners for Sarah.

Caroline Kennedy's ploy for Hillary Clinton's senate seat seems to have bolstered Palin's career more than Kennedy's. Ever since Kennedy announced her intentions, comparisons to Palin have exploded, focusing largely on Palin's relative charisma. Even Palin's resume is comparatively robust.

It's incredible how quickly a public persona can change. Even though Palin "energized the party," she was also perceived as a divider and a hard-Right zealot. Even Colin Powell said she'd driven the wedge between Republicans and Democrats even deeper, which in his view was the dead-wrong approach.

But it seems the past two months have provided just enough time to establish Sarah Palin as one of this country's most powerful, if unwitting, politicians.

The real question, now, is whether or not Obama will actually have something to worry about come 2012.

[Image: Tricia Ward for Wikimedia Commons]