Mark this date as when the WaNY establishment anointed Sarah Palin as the #1 challenger to Barack Obama in 2012. The Washington Post has given it's editorial page over to Mrs. Palin for a rant on Copenhagen. I suppose there are other Republicans running - Huckabee? But they have been wiped off the pages and TV screens of the MSM in favor of Mrs. Palin, who is just, well - everywhere all at once tweeting us breathlessly!

Every tweet and tidbit uttered is captured and echoed back throughout each day by all the media stars from the Right and the Left too. That's a sure sign she's the new IT Girl! And, just how smart was it to dump that tedious boring old desk job as Governor of Alaska?

It's going to be a very long election cycle, but game on! In summing up Mrs. Palin as the Red Team's media darling and enticing front-runner she has these 10 things going for her:

1. She is pretty.

2. She is telegenic and has natural TV star quality.

3. She is sexy enough that every male between 12 and 95 is fantasizing of sex with her, and every male media star, TV host, and columnist believes he has a shot.

4. She knows instinctively how to make news - and no handlers required.

5. She has a dysfunctional, weird family ready-made for gossip columns - which make up a significant part of the media bullhorn.

6. She has a "hillbilly heart" -  -  that quintessential American blend of pure kitsch and corn and 'country western' values embraced by the great heartland masses. She's a Mom!

7. She is fearlessly self-revealing, and unafraid of self exposure of any kind.

8. She doesn't kowtow to the tired gray party apparatchiks. Yes, you could even say she's a bit rogue.

9. She is religious in that wonderfully benign, public and sentimental way mastered by Ronald Reagan, and copped by George W. Bush so effectively in 2000.

10: She's fun to cover! (Compare and contrast: Mike Huckabee?)

Of course, this doesn't mean she's any kind of shoe-in for the Republican nod in 2012. Just like Rudy, she could burn up in the primaries. But until then, she is IT!