All hail the Tea Party Evangelist, Sarah Palin. Palin’s appearances in Iowa and New Hampshire re-establish her turf as the favorite evangelist and speaker for the Tea Party in 2012. Speaking at a rally in Iowa this Saturday (despite organizing issues), Palin warned the wet, enthusiastic crowd that: “We’re here because America faces a tipping point. We’re at a crisis.”

While media pundits weighed in on Palin’s dismal poll numbers and her presidential viability, she was busy writing another script altogether. Her detractors should pay attention.

Palin is at her best not as a candidate but as a populist leader with star power, a die-hard fan following, and the ability to take a pithy phrase and make it stick. The narrative of decline and restoration in Saturday’s speech speaks to many conservative Christians who believe that these are the “end times” for America if change (i.e. voting President Obama out in 2012) does not happen. Palin is their darling, and she can take her religious narrative and her political narrative and turn them into a juggernaut that will affect the 2012 presidential race—whether she runs or not.

Palin’s followers are not the beautiful people, but the downtrodden, the disadvantaged, the disaffected; they are a force, and they will not go away. Palin is their voice, articulating the deep dissatisfaction they feel with both President Obama and the Republican Party—and she does it with precision. She’s the new breed of religious right leader: an evangelist who doesn’t pontificate from a church, radio, or magazine, but as a roving itinerant who has others set up her tent and do her advance work as she concentrates on getting the media to cover her message without spending a cent on PR.

Unlike her bus drop-in to the Iowa State Fair a few weeks back, the trip to Iowa this Labor Day weekend had a dual purpose: to thank her followers at Conservatives for Palin and Organizing for Palin for their help, and to set down a major “Tea Party” policy speech. Joined by her closest supporters at the Machine Shed Restaurant in Urbandale, the former governor of Alaska mingled freely and listened to an impassioned speech about her fitness to run for president of the United States. Though greeted with the chant Run, Sarah, Run! she remained mum, signing books and Bibles, shaking hands and taking pictures, openly enjoying the chance to be close to her fans.

Palin may do many things poorly, but she is a great retail politician who knows how to work a crowd; allowing them closeness without being close herself. She even credited her husband Todd with a catchphrase to rival Obama’s 2004 red states–blue states line:

We got to gather together last night—different demographics, different political parties even represented—and Todd reminded me as we walked out of that room, he said, “See, we’re not celebrating ‘red America’ or ‘blue America.’ We’re celebrating red, white, and blue America.”

Both the Friday night meetup and Saturday’s Tea Party event were predominately attended by older whites (the main demographic of the Tea Party), but with a noticeable mix of ethnic groups. Though Saturday began with a torrential downpour many supporters braved the thunder and remained planted in their lawnchairs, umbrellas aloft, waiting to hear the featured speaker. Palin obliged with a rousing 40-minute speech, during which she lambasted President Obama with plays on his stock phrase “fundamental transformation”:

We’re not willing to just sit back and watch her demise through some “fundamental transformation” of the greatest country on Earth. We’re here to stop that transformation and to begin the restoration of the country that we love.

She also deftly cast the Tea Party as a movement, born out of a familiar urgency: “It’s the same sense of urgency that propelled the Abolitionists before the Civil War and the Civil Rights Movement during the 20th century. The Tea Party Movement is part of this noble American tradition.”

It’s tempting to take issue with Palin’s assessment of the Tea Party as being in the tradition of Abolitionism and the Civil Rights Movement (what with claims of Tea Party racism), but it risks overlooking the crucial frame she’s creating, setting up the Tea Party not as “terrorists,” but as underdog patriots trying to gain their country back. Palin’s supporters are hungry, soaking up her message as their clothing soaked up the rain. Hearing only what they wanted to hear, supporters raised no objection as Palin touted her plan to create jobs by eliminating corporate income taxes claiming that it would return power to “We the People.”

Like any good evangelist who knows that she has to keep her preaching tight and relevant to the crowd, Palin threw in a good line here and there, as when she addressed her poor numbers: “Polls? They’re for strippers and cross-country skiers!”

While the media continues to focus on whether or not she’s going to run, Palin is pulling a classic populist move, solidifying her base of Teavangelicals making sure that they’re 100% on board with her program to oust President Obama and wreck shop with the Republican Primaries. The question isn’t is she or isn’t she going to run?, the question is, how much damage is she going to do to the Republican establishment and the re-election campaign of President Obama?

The Tea Partiers I saw this weekend were eager for Sarah to run, and excited about her prospects. They have been organizing on both the local and state levels, with many traveling over ten hours in buses and vans just to see her. Children and babies were plentiful, making it feel like a family picnic weekend. These are the folks who are disaffected from the traditional religious right. They’re not following the American Family Association, and they don’t send money to Focus on the Family. They are the hardscrabble conservative Christians; the ones with cars on blocks in their yards, NASCAR on their televisions, and relatives in the military.

They aren’t parsing scripture; their scripture (as evidenced by the T-shirts for sale) is Babies, Guns, and Jesus. They like Sarah Palin. “She’s one of us,” said one supporter at the Machine Shed Rally. Yes, indeed, Palin is one of them, and her movement to mobilize the Tea Party into an effective evangelistic army for free markets, guns and God Bless America has just begun.

Neil Young famously sang, “It’s better to burn out than to fade away.” Anyone who thinks Palin is just going to fade away is mistaken, and it’s going to be a while before her flame dims.