“We don’t worship our leaders”
Nobody I know who backed Palin worshipped her. This is just another attack vector. Take something good, like respect for accomplishments, skills, etc., and turn it into a vice, as false worship certainly is. This mode of attack was a particularly effective way to stir up negative emotions because the accused instinctively knows the difference between worship and respect, and then proceeds to waste valuable bandwidth denying a charge no thoughtful accuser would really believe themselves.
As for your assessment of Palin, shibumi, it is too condescending to be credible. People do want a presidential candidate with outstanding qualifications, and it trivializes both Sarah and the Presidency to suggest she would be a “great candidate” without being exceptionally qualified.
My dad used to refer to what he called “damning with faint praise.” Like bashing, it is a means of diminishing someone’s reputation. But because it is more subtle than outright bashing, it is often more effective, especially when it is lightly salted with half truths.
For example, it is true Sarah was not the product of an Ivy League sorority. That’s the true half of the half truth. The untrue part is the inference that Ivy League credentials have any bearing whatsoever on real intellect. Again referring to my dad, he was a professional educator and principal, well educated himself (University of Chicago) and he would often remind me that our usual metrics for intelligence are incomplete at best and often have a weak correlation to overall life performance.
Sarah’s extraordinary intelligence has been made evident by several means, including her gift with writing and language, an area my dad indicated was a good benchmark for high general intelligence. Surprisingly, a sharp wit is a corollary indicator of high intelligence. Her ability to extract the essential irony from a situation and craft it into an effective and entertaining nightstick is, dare I say it, legendary.
Then there is her capacity for strategic planning and leadership, along with all the subskills that go with that, and there are many. She showcased these abilities in abundance during her tenure as governor.
As for how to characterize her stepping down from office, you can be a glass half full or a glass half empty person as you see fit. It is a free country, after all. For myself, I see what she did as a powerful recommendation of her character and her flexibility in finding winning strategies under difficult conditions. The structure of Alaska law limited her choices in how to respond to the loophole her opponents were exploiting to attack her and her state.
So, for the greater good, she did the unthinkable; she set aside her political ego and executed a strategic retreat. George Washington did that too. A lot. It saved his men, and it saved the country. Nothing wrong with solving an apparently unwinnable scenario by an unexpected act of selflessness. In chess a well-played sacrifice is seen as the mark of an accomplished expert at the game. I for one have genuine difficulty seeing how this is a negative.