“She is genuinely doing it. It is her in front of a computer personally engaging with hundreds of thousands of people. That is a huge reason why she is so successful. Most politicians that are personally tweeting or updating their Facebook pages are going to be the most successful.” Raynor said, “Everybody believes is it is her because it really is her and that’s a really powerful thing.”

But, for Palin the question is whether it’s possible to run a presidential campaign this way? Those around her say it’s unlikely.

“No, you can’t do it. Can’t do it without a traditional infrastructure,” says the same Republican operative with ties to Palin. “But, the trend is to move away from engaging the press on the press’ terms and [move toward] engaging the people on their own terms especially on the right where we don’t get a fair shake with the press.”

Mansour agrees, “I don’t know if that’s possible in a campaign when the intensity is ratcheted up.”