The initial reaction of the crowd last night as Sarah Palin marched through her speech, whacking the MSM and slaying absurd conventional wisdom with each smile and jab, was one of relief. “This is not going to be a disaster.” One pundit leaned toward me and said, “We are going to be fine.” But with each paragraph the light began to shine: Not just fine, but stunningly effective.

But I must say the after speech buzz was not so much about this particular election. This is a very savvy crowd of political operatives, former campaign officials, pundits and activists. They know it is still a tough fight. The buzz was about the future of the conservative movement and the GOP (the two, we learned in the Bush administration are not interchangeable). The giddy notion began to spread that Palin is, in fact, the standard bearer for the next generation of conservatives.

And the talk went beyond her role as potential political leader. Conservatives loathe the dig that they are cultural geeks and prudes, that they are forever out of step and behind the times. She offers to transform the meaning of culturally cool. She combines principled defense of conservative principles with a lifestyle that is modern (too modern, for some tastes, I grant you) and a personality that exudes confidence, fun, adventure and yes, sex appeal.

For Republican women this is nothing short of electrifying. “We are not Stepford wives,” they have been arguing for years. They don’t have to argue anymore. She suggests a new brand and a new face of conservative feminism–one that is contemporary and well-rounded and one that does not violate political principles for the sake of cultural acceptability.

This is the start of something far bigger than the revived fortunes of the McCain-Palin political ticket. Way bigger.