And heeeeeeeere's Sarah!

At long last, what the world has been waiting for: Sarah Palin at night.

Those long legs, in blue jeans, stride with strong purpose across the polished floors of the stage of Jay Leno's new and shiny studio in Burbank, Calif.

Sarah Palin, she who must be mocked and adored, is making her first-ever appearance on a late-night show. The crowd howls, the band twangs, and Jay Leno, on the second night of his comeback to "Tonight," the show that is his by rights and ratings, shakes her hand and takes his seat behind his new stage desk. He knows -- look at that grin -- he has won the night.

It starts slowly. He asks her about the usual things she's heard over and over and she shoots back answers she knows by rote yet sounds spontaneous somehow. Does she mind being controversial? She smiles. "I'm not one to sit down and shut up. . . . I'm not desiring to hunker down." She slings darts at the mainstream media without drawing blood. She talks about her wish to clarify many of her comments, but doesn't specify which comments, and to large applause, she says that the Tea Party movement is beautiful. Most of this is warmed-over stuff. She sticks to her guns, bless her.

Then, surprise! She gets up, slim as an athlete, takes center stage and does a stand-up routine, all by herself, confident and light, liking that spotlight. "I picked up a gig in Las Vegas at the Legends show . . . playing Tina Fey." The audience howls. She's got no stage fright, not that she would let it show. But comedy is not something she would want to pursue, but then, many would say, neither is politics. Her two-minute gig will be catnip this week for "Saturday Night Live" and the merciless blogosphere.

Here in New York, meantime, David Letterman, Jay's longtime thorn in the side, is on the run. He's got nowhere to go to flee the Palin tsunami. Dashing David, who made a big splash in the fall with his acknowledged serial affairs with female subordinates, had offended Palin months back, when he sort of insulted one of her daughters. What can he do now but book Mitt Romney, a seriously boring but legitimate contender for the GOP presidential nomination in 2012? Dave is too smart not to know that Mitt is going to put the audience to sleep out there in America while jazzy Sarah is keeping them awake and ogling.

On Monday night, when Leno ushered his first "Tonight" apres the firing of Conan O'Brien, he won hands down: 6.6 million viewers, according to early Nielsen ratings, against Letterman's 3.8 million on CBS. But it was last night, with Palin, that Leno found his old familiar stride, letting her move easily in the spotlight.

Her sit-and-chat with Jay Leno was not her only appearance last night on prime time. A framed picture of her in a trademark red top and a copy of her book, "Going Rogue," were used as props and tease at the end of the hit CBS program "The Good Wife." There she was, Sarah Barracuda, doing a cameo without ever having to step in front of a camera. That is, like it or not, true fame.