What does it say about Sarah Palin that some of my favorite targets, um, subjects raved about her this morning?  Andrea Mitchell and Mika Brzezinski could hardly have been more complimentary, Tom Brokaw and Jay Carney chipping in with positive comments.

ANDREA MITCHELL: Here was a novice on the national scene, with the lowest of expectations. People said sure, she'll be able to perform. But it was an amazing, amazing speech in terms of the way it connected to people.  I talked to people afterwards on the floor, a lot of women. One woman from California who said it didn't matter that she, this woman delegate, is pro-choice. She said "I'm a mom. I've got three kids at home.  And I see myself up there." And she's connecting to her.  She said "I did not think this was a good choice until I heard that speech." Now this is admittedly a select audience of very passionate and very conservative Republican delegates. But I think there is a broader audience for this out there. I think it was an extraordinary debut.

When NBC News Political Director Chuck Todd passed along comments from Dem strategists suggesting the speech might have been "a little too hot" for swing voters, Andrea and Mika actually rode to Palin's defense.

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ANDREA MITCHELL: Here was a novice on the national scene, with the lowest of expectations. People said sure, she'll be able to perform. But it was an amazing, amazing speech in terms of the way it connected to people.  I talked to people afterwards on the floor, a lot of women. One woman from California who said it didn't matter that she, this woman delegate, is pro-choice. She said "I'm a mom. I've got three kids at home.  And I see myself up there." And she's connecting to her.  She said "I did not think this was a good choice until I heard that speech." Now this is admittedly a select audience of very passionate and very conservative Republican delegates. But I think there is a broader audience for this out there. I think it was an extraordinary debut.

When NBC News Political Director Chuck Todd passed along comments from Dem strategists suggesting the speech might have been "a little too hot" for swing voters, Andrea and Mika actually rode to Palin's defense.

MITCHELL: I think she put such an accessible, friendly face --

MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Yes.

MITCHELL: -- on that sarcasm and that ridicule, and the cutting edge against Barack Obama.

BRZEZINSKI: She puts a friendly face, Andrea, on a number of things that may be too extreme for most Americans because she's a woman, because she's a mother, because she's dealing with real-life family crises, because she has a baby with Down syndrome, because her husband is a union guy, she's able to then get on the conservative platform and be this progressive, modern woman with many traditional values that some white guy who got up there just wouldn't be able to put forth.

Time's  Jay Carney, who recently conducted a bumpy interview with McCain, also praised Palin.

JAY CARNEY: She seems like a regular person without an agenda-based belief set. It's an honest an authentic one.

Later, Tom Brokaw had high praise: "she introduced herself magnificently last night to the country. She positioned herself in a way that the McCain campaign probably--I'm sure it even surpassed their expectations."

Mika took things a step further, explicitly describing the way she personally identifies with Palin.

BRZEZINSKI: I think the choice of Sarah Palin opens up a whole new dimension to this campaign. You [Brokaw] say she doesn't represent the life you lead, that perhaps any of you gentleman.  She does represent the life I lead, and the life that many modern American working-women lead --

BROKAW: And that's my point.

BRZEZINSKI: --whether by choice or whether because of the economic situation in this country, because they have to balance everything. She balances five children, all the different details surrounding those children, and an incredibly challenging job. So she sort of has pushed, I think, the conversation and brought women into this through the back door because she is ideologically more traditional and more conservative.  So I think she offers, Mike Barnicle, something that could appeal to women on both sides of the aise, potentially.

People like Mitchell, Carney, Brokaw and Brzezinski saying things like this about Sarah Palin?  Be afraid, Barack Obama.

—Mark Finkelstein is a NewsBusters contributing editor and host of Right Angle. Contact him at mark@gunhill.net.