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Moore, who's been closely following opinion polls on a potential Palin bid, said the former governor has always had impeccable timing.
Among her enemies, "even if they don't credit her for much else, they credit her for having unerring political instinct," he said. "Maybe that's just the gift she has."
He pointed to a recent AP-GfK Poll that found Palin had a 59 percent unfavorable rating. It's "her highest ever negative," Moore said.
A Gallup poll from earlier this week found that Romney and Palin now lead a smaller field of potential GOP presidential candidates among rank-and-file Republicans. But no one is a runaway favorite yet; just over one-fifth of Republicans don't have preferences at this point, the poll found.
And while she may not have key pollsters, advisers or field organizers lined up, Palin made some smart endorsements last year that could pay dividends in 2012. After a Palin endorsement, candidates soared to victory in key states such as South Carolina and New Hampshire, and she was a popular campaigner in the reddest parts of Florida.
The endorsement that may prove to be the most important is in South Carolina, where Palin's backing of Nikki Haley propelled her from fourth place to first in a four-person field of GOP gubernatorial candidates. Haley, who's now South Carolina's governor, hasn't indicated how she'll lean. Neither has the state's aspiring conservative kingmaker Sen. Jim DeMint.
Having the right endorsement is crucial in South Carolina, said David Woodard, a Republican consultant and political science professor at Clemson University.
"It's not necessary to shake every hand and be in every county and go to every festival to make contact here," he said. "A lot of times it doesn't prove to be very effective in the end, anyway."
"Smart or lucky, I never know which is it, but she's in a very good position," he added. "She might reap a real bounty from it if the right people were to stand on the stage with her."
Palin also has a formidable and fervent social media following; more than 3 million people follow her on the social networking site Facebook. Her Facebook page erupted at the news of her bus tour. "Let's all meet at the Last Bus Stop — 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., Jan 2013," wrote one Facebook follower.
Yet Democrats gearing up for President Barack Obama's re-election bid grinned at the possibility of Palin's entrance into the race.
"The more in the GOP field, the merrier," said Joanne Peters, a spokeswoman for the Democratic National Committee.
(Lesley Clark contributed to this article.)
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