Is Sarah Palin the Favorite Candidate of Disgruntled Republicans?

According to a thoughtful editorial in today’s New York Sun, the leader of the non-pro-Romney-but dissatisfied-with-the-other-three-candidates faction of the Republican party is Sarah Palin.  Benyamin Korn writes:

For my dollar, the leader is Sarah Palin, whose endorsements continue to carry more weight among conservatives than any other national figure and who is well-positioned to play a king-making role in the 2012 elections similar to her “Mama Grizzly” performance guiding the Republican surge in 2010.

Citing numerous examples of Governor Palin’s continuing power among conservative voters, Korn says:

This week Mrs Palin was at it again. As Suzi Parker described it at the Washington Post:

[Mrs. Palin] told Fox News’s Sean Hannity on Tuesday night that if she was a South Carolinian, she would vote for Newt Gingrich. It wasn’t a straight endorsement, she stressed, but Palin simply believes the primary should be hard-fought and not easily handed to Mitt Romney on a silver platter.

“Iron sharpens iron, steel sharpens steel,” Palin said.

At RealClearPolitics, Palin-watcher Scott Conroy asked the Gingrich camp how significant they considered Mrs. Palin’s support to be? “Big,” was the answer of a top aide to the former speaker.

Mr. Korn speaks for millions when he concludes:

So what is next for the politician The New York Sun calls “the alert Alaskan”? For now, to keep the GOP pot boiling.

She is able to do so because millions think she is brilliant, incorruptible, and knows how to lead. Many of them hope she will still get into this race, but she has insisted that in this political season she will make her contribution from the side-lines with the goal of a Republican president in 2013.

Mr. Korn is a founder of Jewish Americans for Sarah Palin, and a Philadelphia-based newspaperman.  He certainly has his finger on the pulse of a large segment of Republicans who refuse to do anything to reelect Obama, including sit out the election because of frustration with the results of the Republican primaries and the Iowa Straw Poll, but who have understandably little or no enthusiasm for any of the four remaining candidates.