Sarah Palin wows 'em in Hong Kong!

...and you know it's true, because if there was a remotely negative spin that could be placed upon it, the New York Times would have leaped at the opportunity. Instead, we get sanity:

A number of people who heard the speech in a packed hotel ballroom, which was closed to the media, said Mrs. Palin spoke from notes for 90 minutes and that she was articulate, well-prepared and even compelling.

“The speech was wide-ranging, very balanced, and she beat all expectations,” said Doug A. Coulter, head of private equity in the Asia-Pacific region for LGT Capital Partners.

“She didn’t sound at all like a far-right-wing conservative. She seemed to be positioning herself as a libertarian or a small-c conservative,” he said...

An interesting point from a non-fan:

Mr. Goodé, a New Yorker who said he would never vote for Mrs. Palin, said she acquitted herself well.
“They really prepared her well,” he said. “She was articulate and she held her own. I give her credit. They’ve tried to categorize her as not being bright. She’s bright.”

Yeah, we knew that. Nice of you to admit it, but the crime against Sarah has already been committed....

Seems to me like Sarah is running as a "Tea Party Republican" - not part of the Washington crowd, a women who owes favors to no one, and an American who values her freedom to live her life as she sees fit without interference from a government that feels it is best suited to direct the lives of its individual citizens.

Could be a winning formula in 2012. As Mr. Goode readily admits, she's bright. Quite bright, actually. Don't expect her to follow a well-worn path to the White House; expect to find a path with twists and turns and some head-feints and hand-fakes, and seemingly blind alleys that open up to new ideas and opportunities that no one else saw coming....