In a small state that generally votes Republican, the divide between Alaska's Republican elected officials could not be more clear. Palin was elected as a whistleblower, and routinely rails against the state's transactional Republican establishment. Don Young has screamed "It's my money!" when conservative lawmakers challenge his pet projects and blamed the Republican loss of Congress on conservatives who want to cut spending. And Senator Ted Stevens' record as a porker is rivaled only by the patron saint of the West Virginia highway system.

With Palin now in office for the better part of a year, we have some data points to evaluate whose brand of politics works better. A poll out last month put Palin's approval rating at 84%, and Fred Barnes has noted that she probably America's most popular elected official in any party.

Not content with Palin's public approval numbers as vindication for clean, fiscally responsible government, the Club for Growth decided to do some polling of its own. The Club found that Palin would handily beat Stevens, a 40-year Senate veterans, by 56 to 32 percent in a Republican primary, a number certainly helped along the by ongoing FBI bribery investigation that has implicated Stevens and his son. When asked about the Bridge to Nowhere, only 25% of Alaska Republicans approved while 66% disapproved. And when Young's own constituents were asked to evaluate his claim that Republicans can only win by bringing home the bacon, they disagreed by wide margins. 71% said it was more important to cut spending, while just 17% endorsed Congress lavishing billions on home state projects.

The idea that more government spending is in the "interest" of the voters back home is being upended by the voters themselves. Republicans need to ride this wave, not fight it as the majority of them do by voting for earmarks on the House and Senate floor. Sarah Palin could be just the leader we need to convince Republicans to return to their roots.

Palin's devoted fans in the blogosphere aren't waiting for the Governor to be anointed by the powers that be. Barely a year into her term, blogs like Draft Sarah Palin for Vice President and Palintology track the Governor's every move, hoping that the GOP nominee will pluck Alaska's rising reformer for a spot on the ticket.

Palin's boosters aren't wrong, just a bit early. Let Palin get a term or two under her belt as governor. And then: watch out Washington.