Palin: Norma Rae or Tracy Flick?

Mark, a frequent Flickgrrl commenter, asks: What movie character(s) does Sarah Louise Palin remind you of?" After her acceptance speech Chris Matthews, said she was like "Norma Rae."  Keith Olberman suggested she was more of a cross between Norma Rae and Tracy Flick in "Election."

Isn't Palin more complicated than crusader Norma Rae or careerist Tracy Flick?

Even without the attendant media feeding frenzy for "Barracuda Sarah," as she was nicknamed, her saga is unfolding like a mashup of Preston Sturges' "Miracle of Morgan's Creek,"  Frank Capra's "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" and Rod Lurie's "The Contender."

Anyone remember the Sturges movie where a smalltown teen, daughter of the police chief, gets pregnant out of wedlock? In the film, politicians and media seize her story for their own purposes and she's anointed the heroine of the day.  Of course, everyone remembers Jimmy Stewart's Mr. Smith, the Boy Scout leader who, unbeknownst to himself and his constituents, is a stooge for a corrupt governor and senator secretly promoting a land grab that would destroy the natural resources Mr. Smith holds dear. "The Contender" is the one about the female vice-presidential nominee besmirched both by the opposition party and the media.

Does "Palin Place" (as Daily News colleague Sandy Shea dubs it) remind you of  a movie? Which one? Your response to The Speech?