Sarah's surrogate brain?

According to a journalist named Suzi Parker,,

In the 21st century political arena, social media have transformed the dynamic of old-school politicians and their communications consultants.

Not so long ago, political image advisers like Michael Deaver deftly used photo ops to show Ronald Reagan atop the Great Wall of China or filling sandbags after a Louisiana flood. James Carville helped chart Bill Clinton's path to the Oval Office by distilling an election message to "It's the economy, stupid."

Less than a decade after that, Karl Rove was the architect of a Christian revolution in the Republican Party that carried George W. Bush to the White House. Rove, often seen by political cognoscenti as "Bush's brain," was a former direct-marketing executive who refined and repackaged a callow George W. Bush into a political force.

Compared to the information geyser of today, however, those preeminent pre-Internet political operatives maneuvered their campaigns like whistle-stop trains. Nowadays, Rove's history-making approach seems almost as quaint as a bulk-rate postage stamp.

Political strategists once relied on the press corps to ferry their candidates' message to the American people. No more. Candidates -- or their online messengers -- now take their message directly to voters via a host of social networks.

Enter, Rebecca Mansour -- a mystery woman who, while rarely visible, has become Sarah Palin's behind-the-scenes "cyber-messenger," Facebook ghostwriter, online voice and secret asset. Mansour and Palin joined forces after Palin resigned as governor of Alaska to write her first book.

Well, did anybody out there believe that Palin was writing her own books? (At least her daughter did her own dancing.)