I beleive Palin tipped her hand yesterday on Fox News that she will indeed run for Prez but not as a Republican.
Take a look at her statement...
Here is what Palin said in regards to running for Prez FOX yesterday.
"So, still talking about it, and assessing, yes, the field, looking for others who are ready to go rogue and fight against the machine on both sides of the aisle in order to get the economy back on the right track and do the things that the private sector needs done to implement some solutions to all the problems that America is facing right now."
She goes on to talk about Tea Party principles. Palin has laid down the predicate for her candidacy IMO but I don't think she will be an official Tea Party candidate.
Sarah Palin is running as a 3rd party candidate for some good reasons. She won't go through the nominating process because she doesn't want to shake hands, talk to local media, debate people smarter than her, count delegates, kiss up to the local bosses in each state, politic the local leaders for cheesy endorsements, spend some of her cash on local primaries...and she can't lost a 3rd party nomination. She get's on the national automatically.
She also doesn't have to kiss up to the establishment GOP. They GOP hates her but there are a lot of conservatives who love her.
IMO if you parse her statement yesterday she laid down the predicate for a 3rd party run.