A MEDIA flutter around the re-emergence of Republican Sarah Palin as a political force may surprise foreign observers of American politics.
But it is the focus of a political momentum that accurately reflects growing domestic disenchantment with the regime of President Barack Obama.
Now Palin, who is flirting with the idea of running against Obama in the next presidential race, is no
longer alone as the female face of Republicanism.
The former vice-presidential candidate has been joined by Carly Fiorina and Meg Whitman. Republicanism is no longer the preserve of the old guard. Suddenly it's sexy to be conservative.
Former Silicon Valley executive Fiorina announced on Wednesday she was running for the chance to seize liberal stalwart Barbara Boxer's US Senate seat, depicting the three-term Democrat as a Capitol Hill do-nothing who penned novels while jobs vanished and government spending soared.
The former Hewlett-Packard chief executive officer's entry into the race could present California's junior senator with her most formidable re-election challenge, but Fiorina will first have to survive what could become a scalding Republican primary against state Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, who has worked feverishly to court voters.
Fiorina described herself as a Republican devoted to low taxes and tight-fisted budgets and "a political newcomer who actually knows how to get something done".
"What do you say that come next year, we give Barbara Boxer the chance to become a full-time novelist?" Fiorina told an invited audience in Orange County. "Let's start with living within our means. The rest of us do. Why not Washington?" she asked. She promised not to support higher taxes until Congress learns to spend responsibly.
Fiorina's announcement came a day after Republicans wrested control of governors' seats from Democrats in Virginia and New Jersey, but Fiorina did not allude to those contests.
Boxer is no beloved figure in California, but she easily won re-election in 1998 and 2004. Any Republican will come to the contest with disadvantages in left-leaning California. Democrats hold a 13 per cent registration advantage, Obama carried the state in November by 24 per cent, and both California Senate seats have been Democrat since the early 1990s.
California Democratic Party chairman John Burton mocked Fiorina as "yet another millionaire neophyte in search of a new hobby", an apparent reference to former eBay chief executive officer Whitman, a Republican who recently announced she would run for governor against Arnold Schwarzenegger. "The last thing Californians need in a US senator is a failed CEO who was fired by her last employer," Burton said in a statement.
Hewlett-Packard's board fired Fiorina in 2005 after she pushed through the acquisition of Compaq in a deal that cost jobs and reduced HP's value. The company has since rebounded, but opinions differ over Fiorina's role in that.
Her name is familiar in the business community but she is virtually unknown to most voters.
The 55-year-old served as economic adviser to John McCain's failed presidential bid last year, elevating her national profile, but an independent Field Poll last month found nearly three out of four California voters didn't know enough about her to express an opinion.
Yet Fiorina has plenty of money to broadcast her message. She received a $21 million (£12.6m) severance package when she left HP – a cash cushion that has made Boxer's team nervous.
Even before her announcement, Boxer used the threat of a Fiorina candidacy to boost her own fundraising, collecting by £1m in the last quarter and reporting £3.7m in the bank last month.
"If Fiorina decides to fund the campaign with her own personal wealth, this could be the most expensive Boxer campaign yet," said Rose Kapolczynski, a spokeswoman for Boxer's campaign.
"We could be looking at a $30m or $35m campaign… She could do a lot to remake her image with that and do a lot to distort the Boxer record."
Boxer, 68, has long been a target of conservatives – they pounced earlier this year when she chastised a brigadier general who called her "ma'am" during a Congressional hearing – but has yet to face a serious re-election challenge.
Until now, Boxer's only announced opposition was DeVore. A military officer and businessman from Irvine, California, he has been aggressively campaigning on a shoestring budget for months, styling himself as the only true conservative in the race.
He is appealing to the party's base as the true candidate of limited government, lower taxes and conservative fiscal stewardship.
DeVore said Fiorina was "attempting to sound like a conservative, and yet when you actually probe the depths of her conservatism… it's really not conservatism at all."
