MA GOP Committewoman: Don't count Palin out

Linda Rapoza, a Republican state committeewoman in Massachusetts, says in an op-ed in the New Bedford Standard-Times not to count out Sarah Palin:

As a proud conservative woman who has no problem standing up for what she believes, even if it means being hounded by liberals and isolated by her own party, she's managed to succeed beyond the wildest dreams of most women in politics. Curiously, she's received no accolades for her achievements as governor, and certainly no respect for her efforts as a wife and mother of five.

[...]

Unapologetically pro-life, Palin's been chastised for giving birth to a handicapped child, and then accused of not having given birth to him at all! Despite her efforts to inform an aggressive media that she was fair game, but her children were not, cowardly clap-trappers chose the easier targets: the children. When a well-rehearsed "joke" about statutory rape starring her daughter went bad, all the supporters of hate-crime legislation rallied to the defense of the joker and criticized her for taking offense. You don't experience that level of criticism because you're ineffective.

Rapoza points to two trends that seem to be occuring simultaneously:

For the first time in decades, more people identify themselves as pro-life than pro-choice. Coincidently, a recent Gallup Poll revealed that by a 2-to-1 margin, more people claim to be "conservative" than "liberal" in their political views.

Gov. Palin's own poll numbers have show a recent modest gain in approval with independents and Democrats. Timing is everything. Sarah Palin is breaking the chains that bind her to Alaska, and she will be seeing a lot more of the lower 48 in the coming months. If she can manage to forge a coalition of conservatives and independents as she raises money and campaigns for conservative candidates, those doors she's fond of talking about will be opening for her.

- JP