Your analysis of her stepping down as the Governor of Alaska as dooming her prospects revolves around the fact the entire narrative over the issue has been dictated by those who either loathe her or those who do not want her to run under any circumstance.
Once her reasons are laid out for all to ponder, assuming she does decide to run and then has center stage to present her “side” of any given issue, I believe your analysis falls apart. To be fair about this issue, hyping it to the extreme as you and others have does not make sense when you actually weigh the reasoning behind the move, and to idly dismiss the underlying reasons and to characterize her motives in a flippant manner simply states to me that not only are you dishonest about your reasoning behind such an analysis of that situation, you are actually reaching to find any undesirable available to voice your disapproval of the person in question.
In other words, this is a weak argument that has no chance of “weighing her down”, IMO.
These fifth columnists are out in force these days. They were very effective in spreading lies and exaggerations during all eight years of Bush and it’s natural that those in charge of them think they can do the same between now and 2012. They were so sure they had nothing to worry about that they didn’t put nearly as much effort into 2010 as they had in 2006. They’ve learned and will be spreading all the crap that they think will float from now right up to the next election.
You can often pick such folks out by their moving from one issue to another until they get one with traction, at which time they’re suddenly an expert on that one. Interesting to watch.