Sarah Palin makes a play for Democrat votes

Sarah Palin still won't say whether she's building towards a presidential campaign in 2012. But she does plan to stay involved in national politics and appears to be casting herself as the possible leader of a new movement in American politics, one that would welcome Republicans and Democrats.

"I will go around the country on behalf of candidates who believe in the right things, regardless of their party label or affiliation," she said in an interview with the Washington Times on Sunday. "People are so tired of the partisan stuff - even my own son is not a Republican," she added. Her son, Track, 20, who is serving with the US Army in Iraq, and her husband, Todd, are registered as 'non-partisan' in Alaska.

She also claimed that her decision to stand down as Governor of Alaska - which was revealed in a bizarre press conference on July 3 - was because the barrage of press attacks and allegations about her conduct and ethics had undermined her political programme.

The decision has bolstered her popularity among Republicans. A USA Today-Gallup poll found two-thirds of Republicans questioned wanted her to remain "a major national political figure".

It also seems to confirm the thoughts of those commentators who suspect that the prospect of national fame rather than ideology is her guiding star.

Andrew Sullivan, writing in the Sunday Times, said: "I love the idea of Sarah Palin: a brassy no-nonsense enemy of bloated government and corruption. That was probably John McCain's rough idea of who she was in the five minutes his staff vetted her, and on the one occasion he'd met her, before offering her a chance to be leader of the free world. The idea of Sarah Palin, though, is sadly not the reality of Sarah Palin.

"The reality of Sarah Palin is that politics is a means to her higher goal: celebrity. Every action she takes is designed to make sense... if you believe that government is really a version of a reality show.

"The remote, David Lynch-style location, the family often in trouble with the law, the pregnant teenage daughter and her impossibly handsome redneck boyfriend, the boyfriend's angry sister, an ornery Alaskan trooper, a few moose and mysterious pregnancies... and, well, the mini-series never ends. The best guess Ive heard of the real reason for her abrupt departure is: 'I'm a celebrity... get me out of here!'"

One of Palin's first engagements after leaving office on July 26 comes on August 8 when she will address a Republican women's rally in California - in an aeroplane hangar that houses a retired presidential aircraft Air Force One, prompting more questions about her ambitions. Media will be banned from the meeting.