Here we are, September 2009 — nearly 330 days since the 2008 general election — and America is still buzzing about that pesky hockey mom from Alaska.

It’s not for lack of trying to avoid the spotlight that Sarah Palin remains at the center of the political whirlwind that is the Washington-West coast media axis. Call it a healthy curiosity or, in the case of MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann, an unhealthy obsession with the ex-Alaska governor, but whatever the case may be, the Palin meme has refused to subside.

The announcement this week that the release date for Palin’s campaign memoir (heretofore scheduled for a Spring 2010) has been pushed up to Nov. 17 has sparked a revived fury about her role in the American political discussion going forward.

Politico, for one, is bullish on Palin, dubbing her “the hottest brand name in politics” in a headlining piece today. Others, like The Atlantic’s Andrew Sullivan aren’t so sure, liking her to a “hood ornament for a marketing campaign that now passes for the conservative movement.”

They just don’t get it. Greg Beato gets it.

“It”?

It’s this (the biggest “duh,” hiding-in-plain-sight, obvious conclusion ever, but one that Palin’s detractors and foes left and right have summarily overlooked and the reason why she is so underestimated): Sarah Palin isn’t a politician; she’s a phenomenon.

What they don’t get — or what they recklessly refuse to realize — is that Palin, having shed herself of the Republican establishment and having donned the public persona of rogue, has, in effect, transcended politics itself. She’s not so much populist-political as she is pop-cultural. Her unconventionality, her unorthodoxy, her “craziness” only endear her to American heartland and simultaneously bewilder her political opponents. Either way, they’re fascinated by her. That’s why Palin’s strength lies in her perceived failure to adhere to old-school Washington norms.

What Palin has done since the end of the ‘08 campaign would have seemed unthinkable on the morning of Nov. 5. Not only has she managed to stay afloat politically but somehow has even expanded her power and sphere of influence to levels unprecedented in this techno-ADD age. In the process, she’s rewriting the textbook on twenty-first century political leadership. Correction: Political influence.

The Katie Couric-debating, elk-shooting Caribou Barbie that liberals love to hate has nearly a million followers on Facebook. Who’s the rocket scientist now? Who says Sarah Palin has to be governor or run for president to affect political change in Washington and throughout America?

The reality is, she doesn’t. Writes Beato:

This is politics 2.0, 2009 style:

“Death panels,” anyone?

Beato is right: “Whether she plans to run for president or star in a documentary about the pressing need to save the oil industry, Palin’s abrupt departure was a stroke of genius, the most sensible move she could have made.” (Well, maybe not about the resigning as a pretext for a presidential run…at least not for 2012.)

However… The trouble for Palin, in working to win over the general public, is to avoid transforming her public identity into a cult of personality (à la Barack Obama) founded on little more than charisma and personal appeal.

Therein lies her greatest challenge. The Republican Party needs ideas, not personas, as GOP12’s Christian Heinze rightly attests. Palin runs the risk of becoming another George W. Bush: an attractive, down-to-earth politician with an “ordinary Joe” attitude, yet void of a bedrock of conservative principles.

Where does she go from here? It’s anyone’s guess (one more reason Palin’s star will only burn brighter as speculation over 2012 picks up steam).

At a minimum, she is a force to be reckoned with. At most, well…let’s just say we haven’t seen the last of Sarah Palin yet. This pitbull still has some bark left in her. For now, Barracuda rolls on.

Update: Welcome, Texas for Sarah Palin readers.