You know, this makes perfect sense. If you take the love of hunting away, Sarah Palin is nearly the embodiment of what I associate with women who choose to live in Scottsdale.

The prospect of Sarah Palin running for president is, increasingly, dismissed by a political class that sees her facing weak poll numbers — especially in key early states — and doing nothing to correct them or to buil the infrastructure for a run.

But I'm told Palin's camp is, at least, holding preliminary talks about how a campaign would look if she decides to run. One early decision, a source says: It would be based in Scottsdale, Arizona, very near where Bristol Palin recently bought a house in Maricopa.

One lesson of Palin's sometimes-difficult time in the spotlight has been that Alaska is an extremely difficult base for national politics. From a distant political culture to a daunting time difference, Palin hasn't been terribly well served by the fact that her state is little-known to reporters in the lower 48, and that email inquiries arrive at 3:00 a.m. needing answers by 5:00 a.m.

And Arizona carries its own significance: Basing a campaign there would be a provocative rejection of any lingering political cost from those who connect her harsh rhetoric and Gabrielle Giffords' shooting — a traditional refusal to retreat. It's also the core of the politically contested, fast-growing new West.

And it would also hark back, perhaps not to McCain, more a Washington figure than an Arizona one, but to what now stands as the iconic campaign for many base Republican voters: Goldwater '64.

Palin aides didn't respond to an inquiry about the plans.

UPDATE: SarahPAC treasurer Tim Crawford emails, "There has been no decision about where a campaign would be based."

[Politico]