Re: your last paragraph - we keep hearing 2012, but I honestly think she'll be on her way out long before that. The Republican party needs to undergo a seismic shift if it wants to regain any sort of power with the American electorate, and I hope and believe that Palin's brand of identity politics and lowest-common-denominator appeal will keep her out of a national race. All this villification after the loss seems like an important step along the way.