I still think that Palin shouldn't run for President in 2012

I am a bit reminded of a scene from the movie "Little Big Man" where Gen. Custer asks the opinion of the "mule skinner" with respect to the enemy presence.  Custer outsmarts himself in a ridiculous fashion.  In a similar fashion, I think conservatives may be outsmarting themselves by deciding to run against the polls that don't favor Palin.  Here's a description of the scene from Wikipedia

Jack suddenly hears the faint chords of the traditional cavalry tune Garryowen echoing through a valley and spots Custer and his troops marching nearby. Jack decides to exact revenge. Custer, who remembers that Jack once tried to assassinate him, hires him him as a scout, believing anything he says will be a lie, thus serving as a reverse barometer.

Any attempt to look at the polls as anything other than what they are is reminiscent of this scene. If the polls are seen as a false barometer, the Republicans will be outsmarting themselves.

There was a writeup in USNews with respect to a potential Palin run.  In it, the author references Palin's debate with Biden in 2008.  I took a look at that again and it shows why she should not run.  Not that she was dumb, or performed badly, but that she pretty much had to follow a script because she was already damaged goods.  This is the same thing that happened to Quayle after the vice presidential debate in 1988.

Once damaged, it is hard to recover from it.  She really couldn't be on her own in this debate.  If she was on her own, then she did indeed perform badly, in my opinion.  She needed to put up a better defense of free market principles and not lay the blame for the housing crisis on Wall Street.  That played right into the hands of the Democrats and all but guaranteed their victory.  This is not to say that Wall Street behaved well in this financial meltdown, but that Washington had a lot to do with it too.   The Democrats were successful at shifting blame away from the government onto Wall Street.  That was a tactical blunder which was probably decisive.

A stronger candidate could have avoided this.  Some of this blame belongs to McCain as well.  For choosing her in the first place, and also not offering a more forceful defense of capitalism and a more forceful criticism of big government.  This was an especially weak ticket.