Can Sarah Palin save the GOP?

Yes.

Do you remember the first time you heard Sarah Palin speak? How it made you feel?

I do. Electrified. Spellbound. Hanging on every word, every syllable, wondering "Who in the hell is this sudden star?" I immediately took a liking to this new voice.

Then began the relentless, vicious attacks from the left, the condescension of the right's intelligentsia (the Parkers and Wills). They attempted to diminish her, to marginalize her. And, to an extent, they succeeded. But, even with that constant barrage of undeserved attacks from all sides, the faithful flocked to hear her, this new voice that sounded so much like themselves coming from a woman whose life's experiences so resembled their own.

The faithful recognized one of their own. They sensed the genuineness of Sarah Palin.

She didn't just say what people wanted to hear; she said what she wanted to say. She, as governor, didn't do just what people wanted her to do; she did what she was compelled by her fundamental beliefs to do. In the common parlance, she "walked the walk."

Some "conservatives," especially the beltway intelligentsia, decided to essentially ignore Sarah Palin's history of accomplishment in favor of remarking disparagingly about the way she speaks which is, at times, scattershot to the point of being almost unintelligible.

But, even in those moments of meandering mazes of half-finished sentences, for the faithful, there isn't any question as to what Sarah Palin believes -- just a desire that she could articulate it better.

For them, and for me, a President we know to be a conservative is far superior to one who is merely talks like one.

As this remarkable woman becomes more comfortable in her fresh national skin, she will develop the skills necessary to better articulate her positions, positions informed by her fundamental beliefs, and like Reagan, her essential likeability will come through and more people will find themselves willing to listen to her ideas with more open minds. When this happens, those other Republican Presidential hopefuls who are more informed by polls than beliefs will find themselves jockeying for position as her Vice Presidential nominee.

The GOP needs desperately an unifying voice, a voice around which the party faithful can rally. There simply isn't any other voice in the GOP which engenders such support -- support springing almost as much from the belief in her as the ideas she champions.

This is called "trust." The faithful believes in Sarah Palin as we do no other "politician" in the Republican party. We believe that she believes in the ideas and values she champions, ideas and values that we believe in. As importantly, we believe that, if elected, she'll actually do what she says that she will.

That is a powerful combination of forces.

Perhaps powerful enough to save the fractured GOP.