One thing we democrats have to be careful is not to raise the GOPpies "protection instincts". , It's easy to forget that they existed now that everyone sees what a dumb, lazy creep GW is. But they served GW Dummya Bush for a long time. It is epitomized by the common thread on many a bipartisan online forum I've saw:
If George W Bush found the cure for cancer (or resurrected Jesus or some other platitude like that) you liberals would still be against him
The implication was simple: we liberals were "irrational" with hate for GW and twisted anything against him. For those who did see his flaws, it still galled them because they identified with Bush who was "a guy like them" and we were being mean to him. They had to protect him from us mean hateful liberals. They felt Bush was getting a raw deal from us and felt they had to protect GW from the ABB crowd.
Today on NPR there was a woman saying this: Sarah Palin is a christian woman like me, and no matter what you hateful elitists liburals say, you won't change my mind about her (the radio didn't show if she was holding her breath till she got blue and sticking her tongue out to us).
We gotta be careful we don't make Sarah a martyr of the right!
In 2004 or 2005, when it was pretty obvious to anyone paying attention that Bush was a failure, this appeal to the parenthood instincts of the red voters, coupled with the assertion that WE WERE BEING IRRATIONAL IN OUR HATE, made many a malfeasance from the Bush team completely roll off from him and his cadre. The intelligence fiasco, Valerie Plame, the war mismanagement and many a serious issue completely rolled off of Teflon Bush.
As matter of fact, Bush only started to fall from grace when we gave up on attacking him and let his own acts speak for themselves - Katrina, North Korea, Iraq "turning corners" so fast that made people dizzy with the spin. We ran out of breath and just let the disgrace flow unimpeded... And then Bush couldn't hide behind the "I'm being persecuted by meanies" no longer.
We should leave Mrs. Palin alone. she will dig her own hole, there is no need for us to hasten the process. And a very big risk that we make her a martyr saint of the right.