Sarah Palin is brilliant. She is a media magnet and a media magnate. She creates headlines and draws crowds wherever she goes, whether it’s 98 degrees in the desert of Arizona or below freezing in the snow of Wisconsin. She has built “Sarah Palin Inc.,” a conglomerate of publishing, political analysis, and public-speaking ventures. Her online posts are relished by her more than 3 million Facebook followers, and ridiculed by the political class. But her endorsement in the historic midterm GOP sweep was the Good Housekeeping seal of approval for many social conservatives in mainstream America. And that ability to ignite a movement is what her opponents fear most.

With pundits and the public atwitter, Palin begins her “One Nation” tour this weekend at the annual Rolling Thunder motorcycle rally in Washington aboard a shiny new cross-country coach boldly emblazoned: “One Nation. Under God. Indivisible. With Liberty and Justice for All.” Next week, iconic images of Palin on a hawg will light up the Internet. It will be like Caesar on a chariot with six white horses.