Cloistered for weeks, Palin is now everywhere

Suddenly, Sarah Palin is everywhere.

Palin, U.S. Republican nominee John McCain's vice presidential running mate, was kept cloistered for weeks during the heat of their losing campaign against Democrat Barack Obama.

The McCain campaign largely kept her under wraps out of fear that she might make more verbal missteps as she did in high-profile television interviews shortly after she was picked as McCain's No. 2.

But now that she is no longer under the watchful eyes of McCain campaign officials, the Alaska governor is talking, and talking and talking.

She will talk some more in Miami on Thursday when she holds a news conference and addresses a Republican governors meeting.

On Wednesday night, she was talking to CNN's "Larry King Live," where she was pressed on whether she had cost McCain the election.

"I personally don't think that I, Sarah Palin from Alaska, the VP pick, I don't believe that I caused the outcome to be what it was," she said. "I think the economy tanking a couple of months ago had a lot more to do with it than the VP pick."

This was just hours after CNN had her talking to anchor Wolf Blitzer, who wanted to know whether she might run for Alaska Republican Sen. Ted Stevens' seat should Stevens have to step down because of a conviction for corruption.

Maybe, she said, while noting that she wants to serve the people of Alaska the best way she can and "at this point it is as governor."

"Now if something shifted dramatically and if it were, if it were acknowledged up there that I could be put to better use for my state in the U.S. Senate, I would certainly consider that but that would take a special election and everything else," she said.

"I am not one to appoint myself or a member of my family to take the place of any vacancy."

WHAT NEXT?

What about Palin running for president in 2012, Fox News Channel's Greta Van Susteren wanted to know the other day.

Palin did not rule it out.