Even after Dancing With The Stars Season 13’s end, it’s still topping the pop culture news search results. Today it’s J.R. Martinez and last night it was Hope Solo. J.R. Martinez, the winner of Dancing With The Stars Season 13, was invited to visit Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, who was impressed with the new star’s representation of American soldiers on the show. (And indeed, J.R. did show what being an American military officer is all about.) It’s a fitting tribute to his presentation on DWTS, and it would be no surprise to see standing ovation after standing ovation whereever he goes in The Pentagon.

Hope Solo too deserves a standing ovation – for speaking out and telling it like it is about how she was treated on Dancing With The Stars Season 13. Ignored by the Hollywood gossip television programs, Solo went on Anderson, Anderson Cooper’s new daytime program, and said that while she enjoyed her time on DWTS, they told her she was too intense and too muscular for the show.

This was said by the judges, but it’s not clear if DWTS Executive Producer Conrad Green feels that way.

I met Green at CES 2011 this year:

But I digress. It’s clear the Dancing With The Stars experience left a scar on Hope.

As one who’s observed Solo over the time of her rise to stardom, one habit she has, and one I’ve personally tweeted she should stop doing, is responding to “haters” – people who say things to upset her just because she’s famous and outspoken. Solo has the same problem I have, and it takes focus to over come it. She has to make a choice to be herself, and not respond to people who can, will, and do attack her for it.

I don’t think the DWTS episode will stop her from being herself, but I do think it will cause her to go “Sarah Palin.”

The reason for Sarah Palin’s rise, and I’ve said this before, is because she was treated horribly by the GOP when she was selected as Senator John McCain’s Vice Presidential Running Mate in 2008. After the GOP worked to cast her aside, she fought back by constantly being in the public eye, and even responding to how she was presented by publications like Newsweek.

The result, four years later, is over $12 million in earnings and the position of A-list public figure. Her name commands dollars.

The forecast here is the same process will unfold for Hope Solo.

Stay tuned.