Sarah Palin is the only leading Republican with Rock Star pizzaz. I say that in the best sense of the term. She has looks, moxie, et al. And the devoted, enthusiastic following that goes with it. But what’s she going to do with it?

Remember how the “Bittergate” remarks of Barack Obama at a private fundraiser in San Francisco during the Democratic primaries exposed the basic elitism of Obama and his entourage? It has indelibly marked Obama to this very day.

Is there a similar event which can point to the real Palin, good, bad or otherwise? Not that I know of. But there something which happened at the 2008 Republican Convention which points to how Palin is being used.

Prior to the famous Convention speech, Bay Buchanan and some other old-time Republican conservatives were trying to get Governor Palin to meet with Phyllis Schlafly, the grande dame of true-blue Republican conservativism.  But they were headed off at the pass by William Kristol and the rest of the Neocon gang.

I don’t mean to say she was forced. Au contraire! Though a regional Poujadist politically, which would seem to mean political affinity with Schlafly and the Buchanans, Governor Palin made a choice. And that choice was to go with the money, power & influence in the GOP. And that inside track belongs to the Neocons.

That ‘born-again Neoconism’ was evident in her speech to the self-advertised ‘Tea Party Convention’. She called for a strong national defense AND low taxes which is straight out of the playbook of Dubya & Cheney. And she sounded like Mitt Romney in being gung ho for war. What’s revolutionary about that?

Ron Paul supporters know that the National Security State and Permanent War Economy are incompatible with their dream of limited government. They know Neocon war-mongers are their enemies in the GOP. That’s why they plan on beating off the assault of the Neocons by holding local Tea Party events in conjunction with anti-war rallies.

But Governor Palin knows who’s buttering her bread. That’s why the GOP Convention was her defining event. And we’re not talking of the famous speech either.