According to Steven F. Hayward, author of the book The Age of Reagan: The Conservative Counter-Revolution, 1980-1989, here's why Ronald Reagan would likely have voted for Sarah Palin:

[W]ho might be able to tap into the potent brew of the tea party? Right now the leading candidate is undoubtedly Palin, whom Reagan would probably have cheered on and surely would have had no problem voting for should she secure the GOP presidential nomination. Like Reagan, she has enormous charisma and a populist style. At her best, such as on the "Tonight" show last week, she shares his self-assurance and ease in front of a crowd. Like Reagan, she hails from outside the political establishment and does not crave the approval of the elite; rather, she seems to thrive on their disapproval.

Like Reagan, Palin consciously speaks in ways appealing more to principle than to party. And like Reagan, she divides people across the political spectrum. Her "death panels" broadside against Obama may have seemed like cheap demagoguery, but it resembled Reagan's attack against the Panama Canal treaties in 1978: "We built it, we paid for it, it's ours, and we're keeping it!"

Reagan would probably recognize, and approve of, these aspects of Palin's political persona. He knew the power of being an outsider and how it plays well with the people even if it gets bad reviews with the East Coast news media.

Reagan was no stranger to unwarranted criticisms about his intellectual prowess - though it is unclear to me that he had any prominent pre-election public gaffes akin to the Katie Couric interview.

Virtually all the criticisms of Palin -- calling her an anti-intellectual lightweight who can't name a magazine she reads or a founding father she admires -- were lobbed at Reagan before and during his time in the White House, and the critics hailed from both sides of the aisle. The GOP establishment was very uncomfortable with Reagan, even after he'd won two presidential elections in landslides -- and who can forget Clark Clifford's "amiable dunce" label?

Of course, Palin has a number of other albatrosses around her neck, not least of which is her abdication of her gubernatorial duties.

But while the parallels between them are evident, it is far from clear that Palin appreciates Reagan's discipline and substantive grand strategy. In many of her speeches and media appearances she tends to ramble on, with none of the crispness and rhetorical force of Reagan's formulas. With the partial exception of energy, she has yet to identify a set of signature issues that can carry her particular stamp, as Reagan did in the late 1970s with his relentless attacks on detente and his championing of supply-side economics. (Even on energy, she needs something more substantial than "drill, baby, drill.") And while her reasons for resigning early from Alaska's governorship are plausible, they deprive her of one of Reagan's greatest assets -- an extensive executive record.

I have to say that I'm skeptical -- very skeptical -- about any Sarah Palin bid for the presidency. She needs a LOT of work. Though, I also have to say that I recognize her awesome power to motivate the swelling majority of American people who are hungry for a populist conservative leader in the style of Reagan. As Mrs. MaryHunter never ceases to tell me: don't count Sarah out yet.

Two great ones, applauding America's greatness.

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