jcd,

I won't try and quote each point and address it inidvidually (too much cutting and pasting ), but I'll adress some of your arguments.

When I said she "burst on the scene" I meant at the time she was announced as his VP. That first speech she gave when first introduced went over very very well. Her favorability rating was very high after that. She continued to make a good impression up through the convention where again her Convention Speech was rated very high.

It is true that anyone in politics is going to be attacked by the other side, but if you are a conservative then you also get piled on by the main stream media. The dems and media were scared because her positives were so high and her negatives were so low. The counter tactic to this is always the same. You try and drive up someone's negatives. The only problem was that Palin gave them some ammunition to use, and it hurt her.

As far as her being popular and well received among Republicans, I saw several polls to back this up. Starting with the time McCain announced Palin as VP his numbers started to go up, and after the Republican convention he was actually ahead. I remember watching Obama fumble and scramble during that time. He was not used to being behind, and it was obvious to me he didn't handle himself near as well. But when the economy started to sink really badly everything changed. The election became more and more a referendum on Bush, and McCain started to sink. Nothing could save him from that point on.

Have there been other tough Republican women? Yes of course, but none so far have been in a position to challenge the liberal establishment on a national level. Palin was in a position to be much more threatening then all the others you mentioned.

Just about every high profile Republican African American has had to deal with being called an Uncle Tom from Colin Powell to Secretary Rice to Clarence Thomas, etc. I haven't heard it publicly about Steele to this point, but I guarantee you it's been whispered about.