You are getting close to a consistent position. Maybe she supported it because, like most Americans, she didn't have a clue about what the hell the TARP Bailout was all about. But to believe that she was being a cheerleader for it while at that same time having some core principle objection to it is to accuse her of being dishonest.
Which version would you prefer to believe?
You’re creating a straw man (woman) and then throwing punches. “Didn’t have a clue” is a long way from having a bunch of information, some of it contradictory, some of it arousing suspicion, but mostly your boss and his (now your) advisers are saying it’s the lesser of evils, and you (Palin) are way the heck too busy with the campaign to conduct your own personal investigation.
Now, I’m not saying that’s what happened, but it seems to fit.
But even if not... This boss / subordinate thing seems to elude you. I once held a moderately important position in a medium size company, and in that position I had many contacts with vendors, customers, and people in the industry, many of whom I counted as friends. Plus, I had interactions with many others in the company, to one degree or another. As one might expect, on a few occaisions I had anywhere from reservations to quite strong disagreements with my boss about how certain things were done. Did I “go public” with my views on those, when asked? Heck no!
Yet, one of those contacts has since said I am “the most honorable person he knows”, and he knows both from insight and other sources about some of those disagreements I mention above, of which some were issues that affected his company’s interactions with ours. Some of those came up between us at the time.
Of course, if the company had been doing something illegal, or was endangering someone, my behavior would have been different. But, such was not the case.
Sometimes a VP candidate can disagree with their boss. ANWAR was one such issue, and Palin did (disagree with McCain.) TARP? No way. At most she could have said: “We really need to watch where this money is going.” (I wish she had!) Any more would have blown up the campaign then and there. Is that what she should have done?
Generally, of course, “Honesty is the best policy”, but, there is more to honor and character than apparent honesty in every situation to everyone.