There might be something to the complaint that conservatives "just want someone else to do the gruntwork."
We did not even know Sarah Palin existed til John McCain picked her for his nominee.. how many other younger Republican of Sarah's caliber are out there , that we need to run for President or Vice President? The need to be promoted.
There's a lot to the complaint.
I've been a volunteer on campaigns ever since 1988, and while candidates come and go I tend to see the same old faces campaign after campaign. And there are never enough of us -- for example, when we do literature drops many precincts never get the drops because there simply aren't enough of us to reach them all.
Several years ago I tallied up the self-identified FReepers in my county, and found that if just 10% of them volunteered on local & state campaigns, the number of volunteers would double.
So far I have met only one FReeper (excluding my family) volunteering on any campaigns.
You got that right! I was making calls trying to muster up volunteers to make GOTV calls and do some door knocking. (Don't get me wrong we always had a lot of volunteers) I can't tell you how many people would tell me they were willing to do ANYTHING to get McCain/Palin elected and were enthusiastic supporeters right up to the point where you asked them to come in and make some calls. That stopped 'em cold. No, can't do that. No time. Too tired. Too young, too old, too hot, too cold. Whatever. But other than actually doing SOMETHING, they were willing to do ANYTHING.