Sarah Palin at Missouri McCain Rally, originally uploaded by geerlingguy.

Wow. Sarah Palin is awesome.

With the whole world watching, the Alaska governor and VP nominee nailed it Wednesday night at the Republican National Convention. Her powerful speech reminded me of Ronald Reagan. Her can-do American spirit and optimistic outlook are truly inspirational.

Before her speech, I was hoping Palin could master one of two things — introducing herself to America or showing a grasp of policy issues. She did both — phenomenally. She even managed to mix in a few jabs at liberal elitists and the nattering nabobs. Better than expected.

Palin’s speech was so good that the angry analysts at CNN, who ruthlessly attacked her all week, were left with nothing but praise for her. Jon Henke, co-founder of The Next Right, said on Twitter attendees were calling it both a “home run” and “grand slam.”

UPDATE — Sept. 4, 8:44 p.m.: Leslie Bradshaw and the crack team at C-SPAN have video of the Palin speech, which I’ve embedded below.

UPDATE — Sept. 4, 9:20 a.m.: I enjoyed Joshua Trevino’s analysis of Palin’s speech. Josh is in St. Paul for the convention and has been an intrepid photographer as well. Her’s a quote from his blog post:

There is the Sarah Palin you saw on television, and there is the Sarah Palin I saw in the XCel Center here in St Paul, Minnesota. I don’t know how it played on TV. I don’t know what the news media said. I don’t know how the pundits assessed the speech. I don’t know what narratives the blogs are spinning. I only know what I saw. I only know what I felt. I only know what effect Sarah Palin had on the thousands of men, women and children assembled to hear her accept the Republican nomination for Vice President of the United States. I only know what word describes all that best.

The word is electric.

UPDATE — Sept. 4, 10:48 a.m.: There are few more links I wanted to share about Palin’s speech. Late last night I spoke to Sarah Lai Stirland of Wired about the speech. Here’s my quote: “She’s the Ronald Reagan of our generation — she just has that natural ability to speak in a way that people can relate to.”

Conservative scholar Peter Wehner, writing at Contentions, notes the significance:

It was important above all for Sarah Palin, who, under enormous pressure, delivered her speech flawlessly, with grace and style, in a way that was elegant, effective, and accessible. She is a supremely gifted political talent, both captivating and tough. And her conservatism seems organic rather than manufactured, ingrained rather than recently imbibed.

And just as interesting, liberal blogger Jerome Armstrong of MyDD:

We have met someone that we will be doing battle against for a decade or more. Seriously. I’ve never seen a woman, or a man for that matter, speak that way, prime time, national, convention, live, ever. She blows away Hillary Clinton. Sorry, but that’s what it is.