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The Thursday, February 5, article “Not Sarah Palin — not again,” by Jerry Shenk, struck me as dead wrong on all counts.

First, Sarah Palin is one of us, not one of them.

Second, the country needs a healer – someone who can rise above the mass media’s hate-fueled attacks while working to bring sanity back to government and ideological balance back to both major parties. Sarah Palin can do this: she’s a deeply committed conservative who has consistently shown, and not just as governor and McCain’s running mate, but throughout her personal and political life, both an ability to work with the other side and a willingness to listen to others.

Third, Palin is electable – whether she takes Scott Walker, Michele Bachmann, or Newt Gingrich along doesn’t really matter. With her at the top of the ticket, the media will go berserk, and the same four million Tea Party voters who stayed home in 2012 will put her into the White House with a massive majority.

Palin excites where Democrats organize. It almost doesn’t matter which dino you look at, the differences between a Palin rally and one of theirs are striking. Even Warren (who I think will head up the ticket if for no other reason than the fact that following a faux American with a faux Pocahontas seems natural) can only marshal, not excite, her voters. Look at Palin campaign videos posted on blogs and other non-major media sites, and you’ll see people getting emotionally involved, feeling the energy, talking to strangers, and expressing hope. None of that happens when Clinton, Warren, or Obama speaks. There you see the unmistakable signs of the few manipulating the many: people standing silently or in small groups that came together and will leave together, people throwing garbage on the floors, “spontaneous” demonstrators waving professionally made signs, and carefully cued cheering.

Fourth, she’s right much more often than most. Almost every time she’s said something since 2007, the media have jumped all over how stupid she is, and later remembered only their own vitriol when time proved her right.

Fifth, the woman’s character is unimpeachable. For eight years now she’s been the primary target for every liberal fascist from MSNBC and the New York Times to the Daily Kos – and none of them have found a thing. As Romney discovered, it doesn’t matter whom the GOP puts up; the same campaign machine that can dedicate man-months of FBI time to Bridgegate but is unable to find even a smidgen of corruption at the IRS will go after even the most liberal candidate with all guns blazing.

So, bottom line? Yes, Sarah, finally – because she’s what the country needs: hope, warmth, engagement, honesty; the kind of real Americanness that can come from only a true conservative: one who can make tough decisions, values contrary opinion, and never loses her moral compass