Great and sobering observation, which also touches on the essence of her problem.
Palin's strongest supporters hear someone say "But she quit" and unleash the "Democrats were hunting her down and she had bills to pay and" etc.
They do not realize that the game is lost before they get to the end of that explanation.
If anyone we disliked could be labelled a quitter, we would shut down any explanation that followed, too. This is my problem with the celebrity status of Palin--she isn't praised for her excellence (I'm not saying she doesn't have this in her--read exactly what i wrote), she's praised because she 'drives the libs crazy.' She isn't discussed for her amazing successes in Alaska, she's discussed because she's a colorful character who says things that drive people like Chris Matthews crazy.
Some folks can't seem to grasp that most voters DO NOT CARE about any of this. They pay attention to the news and read the paper around the rest of their busy lives. Come a year from October, they will sit down and think, "Well, what about this Palin?" And if they think "She's a quitter," you can have phonebook-sized stacks of explanations that will show how she was right, she was wronged, everyone else was the villain and she was the hero...and it DOES NOT MATTER.
When she was smeared by Couric and company, the response here was "Look what Katie Couric did!" That's a legitimate response to Couric's bias. But back in the day, no one said "Look what Mondale said about Reagan!" They were too busy laughing about how Reagan dismissed the entire age question by casually saying, "I won't hold my opponent's youth and inexperience against him" (paraphrasing from memory).
These things just are or they are not. And the reality is, Palin is capable of blowing off stupid reporters like the one at that event last week (she was more interested in seeing a calf or something than talking to the incredulous reporter). But the stage has already been set, so every Reagan-like dismissal is seen not as coming from strength and experience (as Reagan was able to do) but because Palin is some hick.
That's the burden she's under, and as much as we root for her and want her to turn the tables on them, if that were possible, I don't think we'd have Obama in the White House and more than a handful of Dems in DC in the first place.
CBS (Couric Bull Shoot) - when she asked Palin to name Supreme Court decisions she disagreed with, didn’t Palin say “Roe v. Wade and Kelo v. New London”? That’s what Sarah said, right? And then Fightin’ Sarah gave a really great take-down of how Stephens’ majority Kelo opinion was an anti-Consitutional treason, right? I remember it well.
Personal recommendations from friends go a LONG way to counteract the bullsh*t in the press.
And of course, mockery. Point out that one of the charges against her was that her *LEGAL DEFENSE FUND* was called "illegal". Even the dimmest bulb begins to figure it out at that point.
Cheers!