What polls are these?
An idiot. Totally agree. 
So, which intellectual heavyweights would have appealed to the loonies? There were a bunch of Republican women mentioned, but they were all way too far to the left for the Kristol Krowd. Palin’s choice was clearly a tactical mistake, but it also demonstrated the power of the radical right, who somehow convinced McCain that he could win against a moderate Dem by moving to the right. I don’t ever remember a VP choice being dictated to a candidate this way, unless you consider Cheney picking himself as that.
How did McCain interview her? Any reasonable discussion should have revealed her ignorance pretty quickly. Either McCain never brought her qualifications up, in which case I wouldn’t want him doing interviews to fill a janitor’s position, or he didn’t care because he was not going to be able to reject her. I favor the latter explanation. Forcing an unacceptable candidate on the nominee because of ideological purity is going off the deep end in my book. If a wing of the Democratic party forced Kucinich on Obama, I think we could day the Dems were going off the deep end also. (And he is far more qualified than Palin.)
But I hope you are right about her 15 minutes of fame. You are more of an optimist than I.
ITT: Sam Stone from the comfort of a UHC country wants Americans to be denied healthcare.
Come down, here, with a pre-existing condition, and say that buddy.