It seems that all the pundits who predicted that Sarah Palin would have a negligible impact on female voters, including disaffected Hillary Clinton supporters, had it wrong. John McCain’s poll numbers are soaring, in large part because women are making a lunge for the McCain-Palin ticket. The MSM has perked up to this state of affairs. This report notes:

The McCain and Obama campaigns are rushing to assess what the Palin force will represent. If it is a small but energized group of Republican women, it could have only marginal impact; if it is more, it could tip the balance of the campaign. On the other hand, anecdotal evidence suggests that Palin has also mobilized liberal women.

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Several senior officials in both parties said they think Palin’s attraction is the result, in part, of a generally negative mood among some female voters this year, first, as Clinton faced a “boys’ club” mentality in the Democratic primaries and then as Palin faced intense questioning, much of it highly personal, after McCain named her as his running mate. To Republicans, Palin’s burst onto the national scene could be a chance to redefine the nature of feminism in politics, recasting it beyond traditionally liberal issues such as abortion rights. “I hope so, because I think it’s been unfortunate that it’s been so closely pegged, so closely defined, to just a few issues,” said Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska).Murkowski, whose father lost to Palin in a 2006 gubernatorial primary, said Palin represented a “generational shift” for voters in her state, something that will bode well for her ability to appeal to younger female voters.

Now, it would be a mistake to view this shift as permanent. A flubbed debate or some  event could well arrest the McCain-Palin movement in the polls. But one thing is for certain: the assumption that Palin wouldn’t help move women, including plenty of independents, into the GOP’s column turned out to be as faulty as the notion that merely screaming “Bush clone!” would be enough to beat McCain.