Mike Huckabee may have emerged triumphant from the recent Values Voter Summit, but that doesn't necessarily mean that he's the GOP's most values-able weapon in the culture war against evil liberalism. As the old saying goes, you can put values-colored lipstick on a pig, but that won't make him into a pit bull. Or something.

Because when it comes to folksy, aw-shucksy, you-betchaness, he's still got nothing on The Sarahcuda…

As part of an effort to gauge Palin's popularity with the rank and file beyond the Beltway, where the GOP establishment is lukewarm toward the charismatic former governor, POLITICO surveyed nearly 50 prominent Republican Party officials and politicians, representing every region of the country and ranging from statewide-elected officeholders to state legislators to state and county party chairs.

Some refused to talk about her at all. Others, mostly her critics, would do so only off the record. But taken as a whole, the body of interviews revealed that despite Palin's high negative ratings in recent national polls, Republicans at the grass-roots level and their leaders still hold a very favorable impression of the former Alaska governor.

Hmmm… I wonder what's really going on here.

Charles M. Webster, the state GOP chairman in Maine, said Republicans there are very enthusiastic about Palin largely because they can see themselves in her.

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