For a variety of reasons, Wendy Button, a speechwriter for Obama, Edwards, and Clinton is voting for McCain. She credits both Joe the Plumber and Sarah Palin. I mention Sarah in the headline because the MSM insists that she is alienating independents. They hate acknowledging the fact that they were initially wrong about her abilities and her appeal. The “Palin alienates key moderates” mantra is their latest fiction. This is what this influential Democrat had to say about Sarah:

Governor Palin and I don’t agree on a lot of things, mostly social issues. But I have grown to appreciate the Governor. I was one of those initial skeptics and would laugh at the pictures. Not anymore. When someone takes on a corrupt political machine and a sitting governor, that is not done by someone with a low I.Q. or a moral core made of tissue paper. When someone fights her way to get scholarships and work her way through college even in a jagged line, that shows determination and humility you can’t learn from reading Reinhold Niebuhr. When a mother brings her son with special needs onto the national stage with love, honesty, and pride, that gives hope to families like mine as my older brother lives with a mental disability. And when someone can sit on a stage during the Sarah Palin rap on Saturday Night Live, put her hands in the air and watch someone in a moose costume get shot—that’s a sign of both humor and humanity.

Has she made mistakes? Of course, she’s human too. But the attention paid to her mistakes has been unprecedented compared to Senator Obama’s “57 states” remarks or Senator Biden using a version of the Samuel Johnson quote, “There’s nothing like a hanging in the morning to focus a man’s thoughts.”

The whole article is worth reading. The PUMA effect is real, but it is not static. We do not yet know the full outcome of this demographic. They could swing either way. But more Sarah can only help.