You had to live through it to recognize the metamorphosis. During those early days of June 2004, as the nation mourned the passing of Ronald Reagan, you would have never known he had been ridiculed and treated with disdain for most of his political career—not only by Democrats but by establishment Republicans. Frankly, I was stunned by the display of love and gratitude in 2004.

As the Reagan motorcade drove toward the Reagan Library for the final tribute, ordinary citizens along the route were paying their final tributes as well. It was an amazing moment.

But it was not always so.

When Reagan first ran for California governor in 1966, a lot of people, both Democrat and Republican, treated his candidacy as a joke. First, he had to get the nomination. Establishment Republican George Christopher, a former mayor of San Francisco, painted Reagan as a right-wing extremist and racial bigot. Having overcome that hurdle, he had to face governor Edmund “Pat” Brown, who was running for reelection and expected an easy triumph over the “B” actor.

One of Brown’s ploys was an infamous commercial he ran during the campaign in which he told a group of small children, “I’m running against an actor, and you know who killed Abe Lincoln, don’t you?” It didn’t work.

After two terms as California governor, Reagan took on Gerald Ford for the presidency in 1976. The entire Republican establishment opposed him. Ford was the sitting president, having achieved that position only by Senate appointment as vice president after Spiro Agnew resigned and then after Nixon was forced out of office by Watergate. He was not exactly the people’s choice. Again, the big guns came out to declare the challenger an extremist. It was an uphill battle, one that Reagan lost that year, only to claim the nomination four years later, this time defeating the establishment candidate George Bush.

Democrats in the 1980 campaign depicted Reagan as an idiot, a grade “B” movie actor who had starred with a chimpanzee, of all things.

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Everything about Sarah Palin is magnified, as the current book tour demonstrates. The book was number one the day it appeared for sale on Amazon. All public figures have a larger than life appearance, but it is far more pronounced with Palin. She is an almost unprecedented media phenomenon. Yet few present her as a truly serious person. Democrats attempt mockery and Republicans damn with faint praise. Those who themselves praise her strongly are cast in a similar light. The great paradox is, on the one hand, the media is driven to her like a moth to flame, yet, on the other hand, they treat her as if she were not worthy of all the attention.

This attitude comes from the same media which takes or has taken Nancy Pelosi, Al Gore, John Kerry, John Edwards, Jon Corzine, and Joe Biden seriously. Admittedly, these are low hurdle comparisons, but that is exactly the point. Yet, to anyone who looks beyond the superficial coverage, it is obvious that Palin knows exactly what image she wishes to portray. Sarah Palin may or may not be a legitimate presidential candidate, (she is, in my opinion); her tactics on this book tour may or may not be helpful regarding future political ambitions (remains to be seen); but she is completely and naturally in command of herself. Yet this seemingly goes unobserved and flies in direct contradiction to the dominant narrative.

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