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Phoenix, Arizona.

"It's 84 in the Valley and you are driving home with on ."

"Violence, attacks, rhetoric in DC and - later in the programme - Sarah Palin in town. Why is she here, do you have an idea why she's here? It's not necessarily to campaign for John McCain," says radio host Larry Gaydos.

"Right, but she also has another reason to be here in the valley and the state," says his partner, Mac Watson.

Larry and Mac bat around the day's news laced with plenty of pungent comment with the practised energy of familiar tennis partners.

Neither seems to need their microphones. Larry sits and shouts while Mac stands and shouts, but unlike many loud radio hosts their commentary is insightful, not designed to boost one point of view.

Sarah Palin, the former governor of Alaska and former vice-presidential candidate, is the darling of the Tea Party movement, the angry conservatives who hate the Obama administration and don't think much of the Republicans either.

But she's not coming to support her ideological allies.

She's here to back John McCain, the former presidential candidate who many in the Tea Party would consider a Rino - Republican in Name Only.

He's facing a challenge for the Republican nomination from but two candidates who make a virtue of how much more right wing they are.

Mac says "you dance with the date that brought you".

There's no doubt that Sarah Palin would still be the obscure governor of a frozen state in the far north if John McCain had not picked her as his choice to be vice-president.

Now she's a worldwide celebrity and, indeed, a brand.

Her biography Going Rogue is a best seller with some reports claiming she has earned $7m (£4.7m) from it.

She is said to make $15,000 a speech. She is a Fox News commentator (whatever you think of her views the backdrop of icy Alaskan mountains is gorgeous) and has just been commissioned to do an eight-part documentary on her state which was at first billed as a reality TV show about her family.

So she owes Arizona's senior senator her fame and fortune and campaigning for John McCain is the polite, pleasant thing to do.

And of course it helps him.

Mac asks Larry: "Is it because McCain wants her to win over the base or because she wants to keep her name out there?"

"McCain is using Sarah Palin to come in and get the hard right Republican, the Tea Party out. She is very far right, she is going to steal some of the votes."

But what is her game?

Mac tells the drive-time listeners: "She's a big draw but she's a circus attraction.

"She's trying to be a political Oprah, she's multi-platforming herself but I can't figure what she wants to be. Is she running in 2012? Is she a political animal? I can't figure out what she wants to be?

"If she wants to run in 2012, people won't take her seriously if she goes down the Rachael Ray, Oprah route. She'll be more Hollywood than Washington DC."

"All options open, man."

I am sure Larry is right. She hasn't decided herself and at this stage it doesn't do any harm being more Hollywood's girl-next-door rather than DC.

There must be some calculation in this weekend's rallies, going out of her way to please the Republican hierarchy and not her solid base.

Peering into the crystal ball, my guess is that she will run but will end up anointing the winner, rather than winning herself.

But who can tell? The reason so many love the drama of battle for a presidential nomination is that it is such a soap opera.

Sarah Palin may evoke too many strong emotions to win the middle ground but at the moment she is the only Republican superstar among a rather grey field.

Tomorrow, I'll be talking to some Tea Party activists and seeing Sarah Palin in action.

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