Full Name: Sarah Louise Palin

D.O.B.: February 11, 1964

Status: Out of the race

Offices Held: Fox News talking head (2009-    ), reality TV star (2010-2011), Governor of Alaska (2006-2009), Mayor of Wasilla, AK (1996-2002)

Why She Would've Won: Before John McCain plucked her from obscurity to be his running mate in 2008, practically no one in the continental U.S. had ever heard of Sarah Palin.  Today, Palin is one of the most high-profile people not only in the conservative movement, but in all of American politics.  In a gambit that proved she's three steps ahead of everyone else, Palin resigned her position as Governor of snowy, isolated Alaska to dominate every facet of the very same media she professes to despise, from Fox News to Facebook.  McCain's chief attack dog in '08, Palin hasn't let up on Obama and the Democrats since.  Even some in Palin's own party are afraid to cross her, because if Palin doesn't fight back herself (and she will), she has conservative blowhards like Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity to come to her defense at a moment's notice.

Why She Would've Lost: The coconut of American politics, Sarah Palin is an acquired taste voters seem to either love or hate.  With negative ratings as high as M. Night Shyamalan's, there are many pundits, including conservatives, who believe Palin would have no shot in a general election.  Since leaving office, Palin's forays into punditry and cable TV diminished her credibility in the eyes of some, and reinforced the notion she had no credibility to begin with for others.  But in our American democracy, Palin only needs to convince a simple majority she's got what it takes to be president, and as George W. Bush proved, sometimes even less will do.

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