While I could understand her not ripping Steele, she certainly didn’t need to say he was “doing a great job”.
She could have said, “While I don’t agree with him on everything, personally, I like Michael Steele a lot, and I hope he can recover from the mistakes he’s made and fix the problems at the RNC.”
If you look at the video, Sarah started out saying that Steele could be voted out in a few months. She then blurted out quickly as a followup that he "was doing a great job".
I think her main point was that Steele could be replaced shortly and that she only added the "great job" part because she didn't want to get into a showdown with Steele at such a critical point in this election cycle.
While I count her McCain support as a wrong decision, I do not count this as the same.
I like your suggestion for what would have been better to say. Nicely phrased.
I don’t think this whole issue is a big deal, but your comment was a good one.