Scary, yes. But less likely if she wins this year. Despite the odds of McCain dying in office being higher than those for Obama, they're still pretty low. I doubt McCain will want to just serve one term. I bet he'll run for president in 2012, though I can't imagine any scenario where a McCain administration--with immigration reform as one of its top priorities--doesn't split the GOP in two. So that makes it likely that, should McCain win in 2008, Palin would run for president in 2016 as a non-incumbent standard-bearer of a split party.
Obviously, there are so many variables unconsidered that this is a bit silly. But consider this Obama victory scenario: Palin could run in 2012 if she wanted to. It could be 2016 if Obama was a reasonably successful president. Voters don't like one party being in power for too long. Obama might well be followed by Palin as president, and she wouldn't have inexperience to keep her down. And she'll probably run the same kind of campaign as George W. Bush did in 2000--moderate seeming and reformist. And, based on what we know, it would probably turn out much like Bush's. Watch out, fellow libs.
