The same way she stands up to Obama, almost daily. Perhaps you missed that.
That said, Palin spent a day back in March supporting McCain, including making that much used radio commercial, and then she didn't spend another minute with him.
Now we have a pissed off McCain who won't lift a finger to shut up his evil spawn.
The moral of the story is that you either completely support a candidate or you don't. You don't support a McCain full tilt as she did in March and then expect him not to get mad when you don't show up for him again.
She was in a tough situation, I would have done it differently.
Poor Johnny. He didn't appreciate Palin's lack of enthusiasm. Of course, McCain and his crew lost no time throwing Palin under the bus after the 2008 election. Had I been Palin in 2010, I would never have returned the rat-bastage's calls in the first place.