Like I said, conservatives love this woman.

Sen. John McCain has taken in $7 million in contributions since announcing Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate, a top campaign aide said today.

The money bounce may owe to Palin’s appeal with conservative donors, many of whom said privately they had planned on sitting out the campaign this year. The money comes in just under the wire — after McCain accepts the GOP nomination Thursday, he will accept public funds and no longer be permitted to raise private money for the campaign…

Shortly before Palin’s announcement, one senior RNC official said McCain’s pick “better like doing fundraising.”

Like almost everything else she does, hosting these events will be something of a new experience for Palin. When running for governor of Alaska in 2006, Palin raised a total of just $468,400.

She’s tapped to do a dozen events for the RNC. Meanwhile, Politico reports more grassroots excitement in the form of spiking volunteerism, carefully balanced by Democratic reports of angry PUMAs throwing their lots in with Obama upon deciding that identity politics is only offensive when Republicans practice it. See also this newsflash from the New York Times, dropping a bombshell that different women have different reactions to Palin.

Finally, via Breitbart, the DNC’s cable news front has unearthed this clip of her from her reporting days. I think it’s endearing but doubtless it’ll be used to attack her credibility. Exit question: It is hard to take ex-sportscasters seriously when they talk politics, isn’t it?