Incidentally, I've thought for weeks that Palin should be more of a contender than she seemed to be. McCain needed a running mate that would appeal in some way to the swing voters while also shoring up his support with the Evangelicals. Palin is extremely popular with the Evangelicals but is also young, moderate-ish on gay issues, etc. She's also insanely popular in Alaska, which implies a high degree of charisma.

She'd gotten so little buzz, I'd figured there must be some deal-breaker I didn't know about (a bad TV voice? a skeleton in her closet?). But apparently not.