[WS:] You are right, but it is likley that this was an intended effect, just like the purported stupidity of Bush. Bush is not a moron, he merely plays one on television and stump speeches, because it appealed to morons whose votes the Repugs sought. It seems that the same strategy is at work with Palin. In fact, it seems like a more refined act that the Bush-moron trick. The main guy (Mac Churian) plays the "experienced one" role to appeal to business class and right wing intellectuals, whereas his side kick (Palin) plays the "moron" role to appeal to white trash and fundies.
I am pretty sure that self-styled "hockey moms" who identify with Palin do not see what we do - an unprepared schoolgirl being grilled by exasperated teachers - but rather one of their own - a smart alec loud mouth white trash flashing her middle finger at "liberal media" and "liberal elites."
Wojtek
--------------------------------------------------------------- "When a candidate for public office faces the voters he does not face men of sense; he faces a mob of men whose chief distinguishing mark is the fact that they are quite incapable of weighing ideas, or even of comprehending any save the most elemental — men whose whole thinking is done in terms of emotion, and whose dominant emotion is dread of what they cannot understand. So confronted, the candidate must either bark with the pack or be lost. [...] All the odds are on the man who is, intrinsically, the most devious and mediocre — the man who can most adeptly disperse the notion that his mind is a virtual vacuum. The Presidency tends, year by year, to go to such men." - HL Mencken ----------------------------------------------------------------