IT will not be on sale until Tuesday but already it is the most talked about book in America, far outselling Dan Brown and Stephen King in advance orders. As for the book tour — that looks suspiciously like a political campaign.

Sarah Palin will hit the road tomorrow to promote her autobiography, Going Rogue, kicking off with an interview by Oprah Winfrey, America’s television chat show queen.

Just 15 months ago Palin had been plucked from obscurity as the governor of Alaska to be the presidential running mate of Senator John McCain. Now she has written what is set to be one of the bestselling political memoirs.

Palin’s vice-presidential hopes may have ended in derision but she is likely to have the last laugh. Some of her 400-plus pages have been used to get her own back on the McCain staffers who, she claims, kept her “bottled up” from reporters during the campaign, made her wear fancy clothes and even prevented her from delivering a concession speech on election night.

The world’s most famous “hockey mom” hopes that her account will enable her to make a comeback and possibly even run for the White House in 2012. It is a prospect that has left Republicans divided between those who think she can save their party from disarray after its resounding defeat by Barack Obama and those who fear that she will wreck it.

What no one disputes is that in seven years Palin has gone from being the mayor of remote Wasilla (population: about 10,000) to the Republicans’ biggest draw.

David Woodard, professor of political science at Clemson University in South Carolina and co-author of American Conservatism from Burke to Bush, has her picture in his office. “Her anti-abortion stance, the fact she’s had a child with a birth defect and stood by a daughter with a teen pregnancy, have made her a heroine to many conservatives,” he said.

“She’s become a cultural icon to a large part of America,” agreed Vin Weber, a former congressman turned Republican strategist. “For average working people who feel the country they worked for is thumbing its nose at them, she’s their champion.”

Palin is a polarising force, however. While the conservative base of the Republican party adores her combination of hunting moose and baking cookies for her husband, Todd, and five children, her stance against abortion and her support for offshore oil drilling have alienated many moderates.

The latest Gallup poll shows that while she remains highly popular among Republicans, with 69% in favour, she is abhorred by Democrats, with 72% against.

For the Republican party leadership she presents a dilemma. The public is becoming disillusioned with Obama and the high unemployment rates but it cannot find an alternative charismatic figure to support.

Palin has yet to say if she will run. “I don’t know what doors will be open or closed by then,” she said in a recent interview.

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