The salient point of the article is that Sarah Palin is 'authentic'. Her conservative views are not poll-tested 'modulated' positions that she hopes will play well with independents but what she believes, unlike most of the people that are considered potential Republican presidential 'contenders' (Michelle Bachmann excepted). This angers liberals and frightens elitist Republican honchos. Hence, the attacks from the left (and to a lesser degree, from the right) on everything Sarah Palin says or does.
I think it's a lock that Palin will run for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination. Her announcement will be met with the thunderous approval of millions of hitherto frustrated conservatives disgusted with the lukewarm gruel being offered by the current crop of GOP presidential wannabes. Palin will blast through her opposition in the primaries and go on to defeat the man the media pretends is unbeatable, even though he yawns as our country faces bankruptcy. Like a slow-moving moose in the Alaska wild, Obama is very vulnerable - and Sarah Palin will take him down in November, 2012.
People forget that the Primary is a war of attrition. When Pawlenty gets 3% in Iowa, he will walk. When Gingrich gets 6% in New Hampshire, he will fall out. When Romney gets 12% in South Carolina, he will concede. None of these will endorse Sarah after they fall, and each will be marginalized justifiably after she wins. Palin can run the marathon because she will be flush with cash. I suspect she could raise 50 million in a week from her facebook alone.