Curious, isn’t it? For a woman described as “someone with a pretty face who lacks substance,” Palin sure gets flattered with obsessive attention by her opponents and the media.

With the growing disconnect between the political class (dancing the night away at a State Dinner on the South Lawn beneath baubles and butterflies and yukking it up at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner) and mainstream America (working hard to feed their families with 9.9 percent unemployment looming overhead and watching while the nation’s greatest environmental crisis unfolds), voters have lost patience.

Agree with them or not, it’s the women of the GOP—like Sarah Palin, Rep. Michele Bachmann (MN) and Gov. Jan Brewer (AZ)—who are tough enough to say exactly what they think. And their words are resonating with an increasingly vocal electoral bloc.