[pshrynk]

Because we are in that stage where politicians are coy about stating their actual intentions. Mitt Romney spend months avoiding saying he was actually going to run, mostly to avoid getting tagged with the early front runner status, which can be deadly.

I feel that Gov Palin's mistake was in handling it too bluntly and too obviously. If she had stated that she was resigning because she wanted to make an impact on the national level and doing that and running Alaska, which is geographically isolated from the lower 48, without actually saying she was starting her 2012 run, she would have come across as the maverick she wants everyone to see her as.