Republicans and conservatives were terribly disillusioned after the 2008 election and the cries for Governor Palin to lead a third party effort were being shouted from the roof tops, instead Palin has been rebuilding the GOP itself, and replacing many of it's major players with better ones while also bringing in new blood and energy among the voter base, all while putting fear and uncertainty (and a smidgen of compliance) into the hearts of the national party leaders.
Isn’t that pretty much what she did in Alaska? We great success there too.