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Abraham Lincoln, the first Republican President, saved the Republic during the Civil War, ended slavery and was the catalyst for the Transcontinental Railroad that first united the East and West of America.  

Teddy Roosevelt established America as a world power even as he reformed the monopolies that were strangling American workers and the economy. 

Dwight Eisenhower beat the Axis in the field of battle, concluded the Korean War and stared down the Soviet Union across the globe. 

Ronald Reagan pushed the decomposing carcass of the U.S.S.R. over a cliff and ushered in the end of the Cold War.

These Presidents, Republicans all, stand as some of the most respected, consequential presidents in America's history.

Fact is, the Republican Party has produced some of the best leaders of this country, men who achieved great things for the people and nation. 

The dice throw of history gave us these different presidents in the times when the very existence of the Republic was in question.

We were lucky - and the voters of time, wise.

To say the obvious, leaders matter and great leaders are called for at all times when your country bestrides the world as the greatest power since Rome dominated the ancient world.

Our standard for the election of a President must therefore be at the very highest levels.  George Washington set the tone for greatness - and every one of his successors is measured by that exacting metric.

So as we now look at the prospects for the Party of Lincoln in the coming 2012 Presidential election, we are struck by the Sarah Palin juggernaut - the immense passion she has unleashed among the core of the Republican Party as they look for a savior from what they have termed Obama's "socialism".

There is among the GOP leadership and grassroots a search for a 2012 standard bearer who will vanquish the forces that they think will destroy America - even if they must vilify and caricature the current President of the Unitied States in order to be successful at electing a Republican President in 2012.

For such a lofty, crucial mission, one would think that the Party would turn to a proven leader, a person of such unimpeachable qualifications, temperament and intellectual vigor that his or her election would guarantee that the next GOP President will stand proudly among the Pantheon of Great Republican Presidents.

So how to explain Sarah Palin's enduring popularity, not to say adulation among the Party faithful?

When she cut short her term as Alaska's governor, theoretically her claim to executive experience, she offered a curious reason:  she could better serve the country by not being a public servant.

She also took the opportunity to slap the pesky press for her troubles in Alaska - a pattern that has been repeated over and over again as her very public mistakes have tripped her up.

Her recent book, a huge success, was seen as a classic pre-candidate move meant to test the waters of grass roots support for a run at the White House.

These opaque moves - why leave the Governorship even before finishing your first term? - have gained deeper meaning as members of the John McCain campaign have gone out of their way to reveal the real Palin behind the scenes of the staged managed campaign events. 

According to these McCain staffers, the Sarah Palin coming into the campaign was highly uninformed even about basic American history, international politics, economics or geography. 

Moreover, she was not a diligent student - or even a competent one - as they tried to give her basic Education 101 so that she would not look like an undereducated rube in front of the national and international press that covered the most important election in the world.

The McCain team now say that Palin was unqualified to be President of the United States.

And even some highly respected Conservative commentators have made the case that Palin is not of Presidential timber - that she is a lucky celebrity with a limited range of actual talent.

One is struck by Palin's contrast to the lions of the GOP.  Lincoln was an autodidact that became an intellectual able to grapple with the most complex leadership and moral issues of his time. Theodore Roosevelt was a voracious reader with a a defined, clear world view and plan of action.  Eisenhower represented the very finest of our country's military education system and managed one of the most complex human endeavors of all time - successfully leading American forces to victory over the Nazis.  And Ronald Reagan, who at times was derided for "just being an actor", was actually a fine writer who documented his deep knowledge of history and world events in a series of hand-written diaries that dispel the notion that he was anything but a brilliant man.

On the other hand, Palin has been called "horrifying" by one of Ronald Reagan's key advisors.  She was unable, now famously remembered, to answer the basic question of "what do you read?" from the menacing Katie Couric. 

She could not answer, perhaps, because "I don't read" would have doomed McCain's campaign.  She was left just looking more stunned than moronic.  But it was a moment of self-revelation that speaks volumes about Palin and her real self.

More recently, as Palin has emerged as popular speaker, leader of the Tea Party and active campaigner for the more radical-right members of the Republican Party, Palin has hinted broadly that she is ready to serve the country in some other, presumably more profoundly important capacity. 

The flirting with a run for President in 2012 is public and obvious.

For many listening, and there were many, Palin's performance at the Tea Party convention was powerful.  She gave a rousing speech that simultaneously attacked the Obama Administration and the traditional Republican Party establishment. 

She was received as a hero - the savior.

Now Palin is flying around the country giving speeches and supporting candidates that she deems worthy to take back the country.  This is classic favor bank building prior to a national run.

And while no one knows what are her real motivations (money, fame power, all of the above) , one can only think that the Republican mainstream party is looking to Palin with a bit of fear.

Although Palin's overall negative ratings have shot up, her support among core Republicans remains high.  According to February's ABC News/Washington post poll, "69 percent of Republicans see her favorably".  Could she use that popularity to influence the Republican primaries, pushing forth candidates so far to the right that they unelectable in a general election?

And as far as 2012 goes, party primaries are usually won by candidates that can motivate the base of their parties. 

With her proven ability of ginning up excitement and action on the part of her supporters - how hard will it be for Palin to get in front of the 2012 GOP hopefuls and drive the whole primary process into a "who is most the right-wing" debate - and fatally position the winning Republican as too Conservative for the mainstream?

Even as we speculate on Palin's future, she continues to apply her folksy charm to talk away even the most bizarre aspects of her public persona.  Remember the famous notes on her hands?  Derided as the action of a mentally weak, generally unprepared person unable to remember even her basic talking points - it was actually Biblically inspired.  Really.

Here Sarah Palin explains, at a Ohio Right to Life fundraiser, why God would approve of her hand notes:

Sarah Palin is already fighting with the media about her book - even though it has yet to hit the shelves and it will come out tomorrow.

Of course, this is all part of the organized effort to sell books by creating the maximum level of media noise possible.

But is it something more?  Could it be the run-up to her presidential campaign in 2012?

Political Daily has a thesis for how Palin could turn out to be the GOP's 2012 candidate:

More than two years before the 2012 Iowa caucuses, presidential speculation should come with a soothsayer's money-back guarantee. But what all the discussions of Palin's future miss is the way that Republican Party rules are made-to-order for a well-funded insurgent named Sarah to sweep the primaries before anyone figures out how to stop her. If Palin can maintain, say, 35-percent support in a multi-candidate presidential field, then she is the odds-on favorite for the GOP nomination.

The secret of Palin's presidential potential is the Republican Party's affection for winner-take-all primaries. According to my friend Elaine Kamarck's invaluable new book, Primary Politics, 43 percent of the 2008 Republican delegates were selected in primaries where the winner corralled all the delegates by winning a state or congressional district. As a result of the Republicans' to-the-victor-go-the-spoils method of picking convention delegates, Mike Huckabee finished second in 16 states and won a paltry 74 delegates for his trouble.

 Here's a Politico compilation of pundit talk about the Palin book:

 And the Wall Street Journal reports:

One of the biggest mistakes of the failed McCain campaign—and there was no shortage of them—was its handling of Mrs. Palin. Her criticisms of the campaign's treatment of her appear prominently in "Going Rogue." But the book contains self-criticisms too, if not as many as there ought to be for a candidate who was ultimately responsible for her own uneven performance.

That said, "Going Rogue" is more a personal memoir than a political one. More than half the book is about Mrs. Palin's life before the 2008 campaign. She discusses her coming of age in the "new frontier" state of Alaska; her personal faith journey; her experiences with marriage and motherhood, including two miscarriages, a special-needs child and a pregnant teenage daughter; and the free-market convictions that have guided her political career. As a politician, she comes across as a prodigious worker capable of mastering complicated issues—not least the energy policies that matter so much to Alaska's economy—and of building bridges to Democrats.

Through it all, Mrs. Palin emerges as a new style of feminist: a politician who took on the Ole Boy network and won; a wife with a supportive husband whose career takes second place to hers; and a mother who, unlike working women of an earlier age, isn't shy about showcasing her family responsibilities. She writes with sensitivity and affection about her gay college roommate, and she confesses her anguish when she found out that she was carrying a baby with Down syndrome. That experience, she says, helped her to understand why a woman might be tempted to have an abortion. This is not the prejudiced, dim-witted ideologue of the popular liberal imagination.

But showing the deep fissures in the GOP, here's Conservative New York Times columnist David Brooks calling Palin a "joke" on ABC's This Week:

It's not yet on the shelves, but Sarah Palin's new book is triggering critiques from all sides.

Senior operatives of the McCain campaign have lashed out for supposed misstatements.

And Palin has also taken issue with the Associated press, the organization chosen by Palin's publisher to receive an advance copy of her book.

According to the AP:

Ignoring substantial parts of her record if not the facts, she depicts herself as a frugal traveler on the taxpayer's dime, a reformer without ties to powerful interests and a politician roguishly indifferent to high ambition.

Palin goes adrift, at times, on more contemporary issues, too. She criticizes President Barack Obama for pushing through a bailout package that actually was achieved by his Republican predecessor George W. Bush -- a package she seemed to support at the time.

But Palin claims the AP got it wrong.  Politico reports:

POLITICO has learned that Palin, in a statement that will be posted on her Facebook page Friday, writes that “as you probably have heard, the AP snagged a copy of my memoir, 'Going Rogue,' before its Tuesday release. And as is expected, the AP and a number of subsequent media outlets are erroneously reporting the contents of the book.”

Palin asks supporters to withhold their reactions until they have had a chance to read the book.

“Keep your powder dry, read the book, and enjoy it! Lots of great stories about my family, Alaska and the incredible honor it was to run alongside Sen. John McCain,” she wrote. “We can't wait to hit the road and meet so many on the book tour! See you in Michigan first.”

 Here's Palin on the all-important, book selling juggernaut Oprah:

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