“Cheney bailed out of Yale and transferred to U of Wyoming, and no one made a big deal out of that. Harry Truman finished up at high school, and he would be scads better than any Dem candidate over the last 30 years.”
The reason why people brought up Palin’s academic record instead of Cheney’s is because everything fits the type. She can’t articulate very well, didn’t complete her term, reality TV star... and so it’s not a surprise that she also has a poor academic record. You can try to explain away one thing, but it’s the general pattern that counts.