Home-made ''Palin 2012'' and ''President Palin'' signs now appear at those campaign events. And it doesn't take long to hear Mrs Palin's supporters state that she is the Republican Party's best bet to claim the White House four years from now. Win or lose, they say, she has claimed a place in the party's future.

''Every time she goes in for a rally she's meeting the local chairmen, the state chairmen,'' social conservative leader Gary Bauer, whose own visibility increased after his failed 2000 presidential bid, said.

''She'll have a tremendous Rolodex that will be an asset to her no matter what she decides to do,'' he said.

Mrs Palin has generally declined to discuss any political plans beyond Tuesday's elections even as poll numbers show the Republican ticket trailing.

However, in a TV interview, Mrs Palin served notice she would not disappear from the national political scene if the Republican ticket lost.

''Absolutely not. I think that, if I were to give up and wave a white flag of surrender against some of the political shots that we've taken, that ... that would ... bring this whole ... I'm not doin' this for naught,'' she said, according to excerpts of a transcript issued by the television network.

But Mrs Palin's silence has not stopped others from speculating how Alaska's populist, and popular, social-conservative governor would fit in the post-election Republican Party.

University of Iowa political scientist who studies women in politics Tracy Osborn said, ''In many ways her future is about the future of the party itself.

''Do they highlight limited government? Do they strengthen the social conservatism? It could end up so many different ways.'' Mr Bauer believes Mrs Palin and John McCain will win on Tuesday, but a growing number of Republicans say that appears unlikely. Whether Mrs Palin has dragged down the ticket or if she's the reason Senator McCain is keeping it somewhat close is a debate that reportedly even the campaign fights over: Politico.com has said Mrs Palin blames her McCain handlers for the fact that most Americans, according to several polls, see her as unfit for the nation's highest office. McCain advisers called the governor ''green'' and ''a diva''. One said ''she is playing for her own future and sees herself as the next leader of the party''.

To become that party leader Mrs Palin would have to build a coalition beyond the base she's acquired since the Republican National Convention. Some campaign watchers say her unsteadiness since the convention might prevent that. Some suggest Mrs Palin would have been wise to decline Senator McCain's invitation and wait until she could run a campaign on her own terms.

Former Republican congressman and co-founder of the conservative Heritage Foundation Mickey Edwards said, ''I think she has allowed the junior high school kind of people running the McCain campaign to drag her reputation down.

''She still has options, but she's going to have to repair her image.''

Political scientist at the University of Alaska Gerald McBeath said Mrs Palin's bumpy bid for the vice-presidency had tarnished her reputation in Alaska.

Since her nomination, ''People have seen her in a more partisan way than they ever knew her, and the national media highlighted things most Alaskans didn't know about,'' he said.

Mrs Palin should also prepare for a brighter spotlight than she's experienced in this contest, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, who finished behind Senator McCain in the Republican primaries said.

''All of us in the primaries, whether it was John McCain, Rudy [Giuliani], [Mitt] Romney or myself, went through intense criticisms and people picked out every way in the world to tell us that we weren't really good Republicans,'' he said. ''It would be a very different environment than [Palin's now], where the party unites behind her and defends her at every moment.

''I think what she does depends on her own ambitions and desires,'' Mr Huckabee, whom pundits consider a potential Palin rival in 2012, said. ''She's obviously excited a lot of people.'' Chicago Tribune