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You could be right, of course, but allow me to suggest a contrary point of view. Palin's last appearance on the televised stage was her debate with Joe Biden. The Monday following that debate (reflecting three days of post-debate tracking), McCain made his last mini-surge in the polls, peaking at -2 in both IBD and Zogby. After that, Palin went on to a string of well attended rallies, the stock market crashed further, and McCain's numbers fell with it. The loss was McCain's fault.
As far as Mitt Romney is concerned, his "connection" with the auto industry strikes me as somewhat laughable. He campaigned in the Michigan primary as the "son of a car executive," with emphasis on the word "son." He claimed he would fight for the union jobs which are being lost (unlike free trader McCain), then, conversely, recently came out in favor of a chapter 11 filing for GM (which likely would accelerate the move toward selling GM's assets to foreign competitors, and ending the UAW). Romney has a business background, but no fresh or convincing ideas.
As far as Sarah Palin's experience is concerned, she has been an executive for twelve years and had a very successful start as governor, including a landmark conflicts bill, oil rebate program, and initial work on a substantial natural gas pipeline. The rap against her was that she wasn't conversant enough on federal and international issues, and it wasn't right just 60 days before the election to put such a person in the #2 spot behind a 70-something year old nominee. That's a fair argument, but if she ever runs for president, she'll have plenty of time to build her platform. She's very young; she could wait 8 years instead of 4, health permitting.
Also, I suspect the real reason a bit of souring took place over Palin was her criticism of Obama/Ayres. That happened, as you say, at the time people were locking in for Obama, and some "centrists" I know were not just bothered by the criticism . . . they went ballistic over it. One person I know responded to a robo-call on Ayres by calling the police, the newspapers, and everyone else they could think of to complain. Also became bitterly angry at Palin, suggesting she was trying to incite violence against Mr. Obama.
If you saw David Letterman's interview McCain touching on Palin and Ayres, his hands were shaking at one point. I've never seen Letterman so unglued. Again, I think it was just cognitive dissonance -- people who wanted Mr. Obama to win did not want to hear anything so unpleasant as friendships with bombers, even though you could of course responsibly put the thing in context, and support Mr. Obama anyway. Many apoloitical types did not want to do that; they chose to demonize Sarah Palin instead.
Finally, I don't think Sarah Palin is a "mindless populist" (as Newsweek called her), or another William Jennings Bryan (per one of her "defenders" in Newsweek). She is more like the old style Republicans from Benjamin H. Harrison to William McKinley: pro-business, pro-western development. I was surprised upon studying her record that she has never even spoken publicly on the 6-day creation, stating instead she believes that God created the world, and how it happened is a matter of private belief. That's how she's actually governed in Alaska, and would do so nationally, I believe.
So, sure, I think she has a great future.
