Dismissing Palin’s popularity as just a reaction to her appearance is a pretty cheap shot. It’s this kind of sexist crap that makes the Republican party so unattractive (though, we all know the Democrats are just as sexist):

Palin is the party’s rock star.
“Some of the people who had excoriated me and really been very dismissive of me for views that I had taken, and labeled me anything from a populist to an ignoramus — the same people have been very defensive [of] and laudatory to Sarah Palin,” Huckabee noted, adding that he’d invited her to appear on his weekly Fox show but “could never get any contact.”
“I’m glad she’s getting the props — I know I’m not nearly as attractive,” he said with a guileless grin.