WOW! – AT 8:08 A.M. ET:  Senior and revered liberal columnist David Broder, of the Washington Post, has three cheers this morning for...Sarah Palin.

I'm serious.  This is not a joke.  It is not available in stores.  Broder gets it.  He understands why Sarah, like her or not, think she is presidential material or not, is such a powerful and appealing force. 

The snows that obliterated Washington in the past week interfered with many scheduled meetings, but they did not prevent the delivery of one important political message: Take Sarah Palin seriously.

Yup.

Her lengthy Saturday night keynote address to the National Tea Party Convention in Nashville and her debut on the Sunday morning talk show circuit with Fox News' Chris Wallace showed off a public figure at the top of her game -- a politician who knows who she is and how to sell herself, even with notes on her palm...

...What stood out in the eyes of TV-watching pols of both parties was the skill with which she drew a self-portrait that fit not just the wishes of the immediate audience but the mood of a significant slice of the broader electorate.

And...

More important, she has locked herself firmly in the populist embrace that every skillful outsider candidate from George Wallace to Jimmy Carter to Ronald Reagan to Bill Clinton has utilized when running against "the political establishment."

And Palin's political future:

...in the present mood of the country, Palin is by all odds a threat to the more uptight Republican aspirants such as Mitt Romney and Tim Pawlenty -- and potentially, to Obama as well.

That of course is the key to it.  Palin comes off as natural, a reflection of the heartland.

Palin did not wear well in the last campaign, especially in the suburbs where populism has a limited appeal. But when Wallace asked her about resigning the governorship with 17 months left in her term and whether she let her opponents drive her from office, she said, "Hell, no."

Those who want to stop her will need more ammunition than deriding her habit of writing on her hand. The lady is good.

COMMENT:  We have a number of reader comments on Sarah Palin at our latest Angel's Corner, sent out last night.  Most are favorable.  However, there are still nagging doubts about Sarah's gravitas, her knowledege of the issues, her ability to hold her own in debate against the superficially impressive, but incompetent, Barack Obama.

Broder's endorsement, though, is significant.  He doesn't give it easily.  He's a serious, thoughtful columnist, whether you agree with him or not.  That end line, "The lady is good," will be widely quoted. 

By the way, an interesting note, I think:  Every e-mail that Urgent Agenda has ever gotten about Sarah Palin has come from a male reader.  Do any of you have any thoughts about that?  I'd love to have them.  Please send.

February 11, 2010