Auction Winner Pays $63,500 for Dinner with Sarah Palin

A woman who owns a defense contracting business in Alabama won an eBay auction for dinner with Sarah Palin. She agreed to pay $63,500 for the dinner, with the proceeds going to Ride 2 Recovery, a charity that helps raise funds for wounded veterans through bicycling and other ride-related events.

Sarah Palin has managed to navigate the rough waters that she found after her resignation as governor of Alaska and now she is in the news once again after a doting fan won a high-priced auction to have dinner with her. The details and the date of the dinner are not yet finalized, but it is believed that the winner, Cathy Maples of Huntsville, Alabama, will be required to pay her own travel expenses to Alaska.

Maples is a big fan of Palin's and has expressed her desire to see Palin run for president in 2012. Palin stated during her resignation that she believed she could have a greater impact if she was not bound by her duties as governor of Alaska.

It would be a long shot to consider Palin a viable candidate for a 2012 run for the Presidency, at least given the current public perception that follows her. If she is able to devote the majority of the next three years to easing herself back into the national spotlight - and do so intelligently and with the proper guidance, she could emerge as someone to be considered. But one would have to think that during that time frame, the GOP will be able to produce at least another viable candidate or two that may be able to challenge Obama.

Of course, if Obama's administration is able to oversee an economic recovery and devise some palatable plan for the Middle East, then it's unlikely that any Republican candidate will have a chance. In that scenario, Palin may emerge as the perfect sacrificial lamb.