Marc Ambinder suspects that Sarah Palin may be playing the base off against John McCain by raising issues he hasn’t embraced. I see it a bit differently: she’s doing the leg work and raising enthusiasm in a way he can’t. But I agree with Ambinder on this:

And if she wants the job, she’s easily the frontrunner to become THE voice of the angry Right in the Wilderness. She is a favorite of talk radio and Fox News conservatives, and speaks their language as only a true member of the club can. (Her recent Limbaugh interview was full of dog whistles that any Dittohead would recognize. Including her actual use of the word ditto.)

Palin will have plenty of time to become fluent on national issues. She will easily benefit from the low expectations threshhold, and will probably even garner positive reviews from the MSM types who disparage her today.

Palin will be judged to be “ready” in four years. George Will and David Brooks and Peggy Noonan will all swoon over her once more. Ok, maybe not George Will.

Palin is an enormously talented politician. When she knows what she’s talking about, or even when she knows enough to fake it, she is very, very appealing, and very good at redirecting questions to whatever her message is.

. . .

The Republicans are going to want someone willing to really go for Obama’s throat, and be able to do it with a smile. Depending on the outcome of the GOP’s War of the Roses, the evangelical community might be a stronger force in 2012 than it was in 2008, at least when it comes to dominating the GOP nominating process. They are a solid bloc of voters and footsoldiers amidst a rapidly splintering coalition.

Much can happen in four years, and there’s no telling how Palin will wear over time. But I suspect the more the MSM vilifies her — whether on wardrobe or anything else — the more she smiles. She’s building her reservoir of support and goodwill among conservatives who will populate the caucuses and primaries in 2012. And if she does make a run I imagine she won’t be taking the “advisors” who botched her rollout and who aren’t doing much to shove back on the wardrobe slams.