Yep .. you hit the nail on the head ...
My brain says .. “She’s great” .. my heart isn’t in it though .. I was telling my husband this the other day .. It perplexes me why I can’t get behind her..
The closest I’ve come is that she’s “too smooth” if that makes any sense?!
Makes sense to me. On first exposure to her via Hannity and Levin radio shows she said all the right things to ring the conservative bell. But slowly her calls to those shows began to make me wonder. I was a strong supporter for her House race, but the closer it came to election day her calls opened with almost fawning greetings followed by brief updates and then the plea for more money, more money, more money. And she raised a very tidy sum indeed. Her subsequent performance left me with more questions.
And before Sarah Palin's bus tour, it came to me, she's a female Mike Huckabee. Same unctuous demeanor, not quite as polished as Huck's, the same repetition of familiar keywords and phrases and smooth delivery.
Unctuous is the word you were looking for perhaps?