Move over, Sarah Palin — American conservatives have a new heroine

Her name is Carrie Prejean, she is 22, until recently she held the title of Miss California — and she has given conservative America another high-heeled, elaborately primped female heroine.

While she might not have the political heft of Sarah Palin, once the Governor of Alaska and also a former beauty queen, she has become a media phenomenon of similar intensity, promoting old-fashioned American family values wherever she goes.

To the delight of her liberal critics she’s also proving to be as catastrophically accident-prone — so much so she is making Ms Palin seem almost restrained and intellectual in comparison. This week alone, she has struggled through a sex-tape scandal, a bitter legal settlement and a toecurling meltdown in front of millions of viewers on