I remember being on Free Republic and seeing the news. I also remember that the leftist character assassination machine was after Palin immediately. It was grotesque and the beginning of what we see now from the Fake News media and liberal political “kill” groups.
We often credit President Trump with great instincts, and I'm sure that's true. However, Trump also learns from experience and from others. I've always suspected that the attacks on Governor Palin were one of his biggest lessons. Palin went from a popular governor with record high support among democrats in her state to a SNL joke in the public eye. I assume that Trump learned from watching the process and that helped him to handle it so well. The false narratives cannot stick to Trump because he keeps hitting them with another "outrage" that offends the far left without bothering normal people at all - monopolizing the media. Only globalist true believers listen to #FakeNews after Trump's responses, and no real American could ever get their votes anyways.
Nominating Governor Palin was the high point of McCain's life. Other than that, I have no comment on the former Senator.