With all due respect, you're reading the left exactly backwards.
Here's the primary factoid you should use to analyze events:
There is no Republican hopeful more vilified by the left than Sarah Palin. The left is more afraid of her than any other potential Republican nominee. This is borne out in thousands of articles and statements in the MSM over the last two years.
At the same time, Palin elicits a level of enthusiasm and "broken glass" support on the right that has rarely been seen in Republican politics.
If you simply look at these two factual circumstances long enough, side by side, you will come to one inescapable conclusion -- Palin is the correct and obvious choice for the 2012 nomination.
You think and wish it were fear, as in they're afraid she is the only one who could unseat Obama. But that's exactly wrong: they think she's the one who Obama could beat. If there's fear -- and I think there is -- it's the fear of an incompetent being given great power. We already understand that fear, having felt the same way about Obama.
At the same time, Palin elicits a level of enthusiasm and "broken glass" support on the right that has rarely been seen in Republican politics.
Yes, among a certain segment. But it's not even most Republicans, much less the electorate at large.
If you simply look at these two factual circumstances long enough
That's just it: they're not "facts." They're just you, projecting your hopes onto Sarah Palin.