Source: AP Photo

(Newser) – Sarah Palin made such a splash in American politics this year that she deserves consideration for Time magazine Person of the Year, Kathryn Jean Lopez writes for the National Review. “They’ve probably long picked The One,” Lopez writes, referring to Barack Obama. But “like Obama, all you had to do was look at her to see that she offered something different on a national ticket.”

“Palin, like Obama, energized people,” Lopez writes. “And she did it in a heckuva lot less time than he had to do it.” Palin’s appeal is easy to see: “It’s about her simple and clear patriotism, and, frankly, her forthright belief system compared to a now president-elect who was comfortable being friends with a domestic terrorist.” Sure, she lost, Lopez writes, but “Time would make a mistake if it ignored the Palin phenom.”