I think the Republicans took all the dumbest parts of the Obama phenomenon ("Yes We Can" videos and the like) and discovered the right wing mirror image of the stupid-person's Obama. In other words, someone who is attractive mostly based on being sexy, young, "exciting" for being sexy and young, and different for being not old and not a white man. We should remember that a long time before Palinmania there was all that stupid Obama Girl shit and the like. Both teams are exploiting the total idiocy of the populace here.
As for Palin, specifically, I'm starting to think of her as a modern day Andrew Jackson. She could probably get us all psyched about genocide, no problem.