Columnist: America has found its Margaret Thatcher in Sarah Palin

John Fund, the brilliant political columnist for The Wall Street Journal, says the meteoric rise of Sarah Palin to the political spotlight is historic. It has also left the mainstream media in a tizzy because the elite media has had nothing to do with Palin's appeal to Americans. Despite the media's open rooting for Barack Obama as the next president, Palin has been embraced by the American electorate. The unprecedented assault on her by the liberal media has helped the Republican cause and could catapult the McCain-Palin ticket into the White House.

From Fund's column:

Twenty years after Ronald Reagan left office, Republicans who have long missed him may have found a future Margaret Thatcher. If John McCain wins, conservatives may find one of the most enduring accomplishments of his term will have been what he did before it started: helping to fill the Republican Party's future talent bench with such a fresh and compelling figure.

Sarah Palin is a conviction politician, a naturally compelling speaker and someone who can relate to her audience on very human terms. America has just learned why Mrs. Palin enjoys the highest approval ratings of any governor in America.

Liberal commentators glumly noted the thunderous applause in the convention hall last night. But they could do precious little to attack. Even Keith Olbermann, MSNBC's official attack dog, could muster only this as commentary on Mrs. Palin's performance: "People who like this sort of thing will find this ... the sort of thing they like."

Read the full column, "She Shoots, She Scores," at the newspaper's Web site.