Read up on William Jennings Bryan. Read his speeches and you will see that Palin is running a modern populist style campaign. But, she doesn’t have a populist message. By getting people who are not interested in politics excited about “one of them” having a shot, and by putting out actual solutions to the problems through policy positions, she is using the methods of Bryan and combining it with her record of getting things done.
There isn’t a lot of room for error in this day and age, and every vote she can create out of nothing is an extra vote advantage she has over any opponents.
I understand what you are saying and I loved her “in your face” speeches as much as anybody but you and I are not everybody in this country. Yup, I’ve read about William Jennings Bryan, a man from a different time but unless I need to keep reading I don’t ever remember a President William Jennings Bryan. And today... we are a so much more urban society (which of course I hate) but it is what it is. ;-)