“both know that she had little choice and have given reasons for understanding her support for McCain.”
The appropriate response from Palin would have been “I will support the winner of the primary”. She doesn’t have to attack McCain and that is as far as it has to go. Loyalty to a traitor is misplaced.
As it stands, actively supporting McCain damages her credibility. Doubt that all you wish, but if McCain wins the primary, this will be remembered.
Rush Limbaugh pretty much laid that naive notion to rest when he described that she had no choice. You do remember that Palin, as the nation's leading conservative politician, that the media would never have let things happen in the simple way that you fantasize.