It's a meme the Romney folks and the MSM will use, but if she runs I think she can overcome it fairly easily (if not she would be toast as a candidate).
"Quitting" would mean she went home to lick her wounds, much like Dan Quayle had to. Right now, considering her positive influence in the mid term elections, she's clearly in a pretty good position.
She certainly is making things interesting and shaking things up quite a bit.
I agree with your point of view, but one thing I've noticed quite a bit in the Internet days is that political followers like us sometimes forget that just because we see things one way doesn't mean everyone sees it that way--rightly or wrongly. Palin is a case of people seeing things about her so clearly and so passionately that, I think, they can't take seriously the idea that anyone could see things in any other way.
It doesn't matter that it's Romney and the MSM see it this way--others see it that way, too. Calling them RINOs or robots or slaves to Romney (I'm not accusing you of any of that) is a way to dismiss them, but it doesn't alter the fact that many people see it this way. If we don' accept that and realize it's a serious issue and we have to deal with it, we're in for some rude surprises, as I've seen happen to so many folks on election nights--they were just so SURE everyone would see Obama was inexperienced, and so SURE people would see Harry Reid is an old fart, and so SURE Barney Frank is a thug...
Our own conviction as to whether or not Palin's quitting should matter doesn't change the fact that to a lot of people, it indeed DOES matter.