Razib Khan thinks GOP elites gunning for Palin need to tread carefully because "Sarah Palin’s intensity of following may be inversely correlated with the the nakedness of antipathy toward her from elites":
Republican elites have been waiting for Palin to fumble to the point where she loses much of her core support. But this seems a case where the more she “fumbles” the more her core followers are reinforced in the righteousness of adhering to her cause, as she shows her humanity. On the other hand a Sarah Palin run for the highest office is probably one of the best ways for Democrats to guarantee massive turnout among their base in 2012.
This is the genius. If her campaign is simply the O'Donnell one - "I'm You" - then how does an elite hurt her without actually helping her? Even if someone found out some amazing new fact about her - the story would not be the fact, but that the liberal elitist media was out to get her. That's what happens when you have a paranoid personality cult dominating a political party.
I saw this early on when I dared to ask questions about the Trig story. Heads she wins; tails you lose. And so any actual investigation never happens, and you have pure reality television politics. The more Palin says "crap" on Fox, the wackier her Discovery Channel escapades, the sleazier Bristol's dance routines ... the more Karl Rove worries and her base rallies to her as "one of them". The worse Snooki behaves, the more famous she is, the more people decry her ... the bigger her audience.
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2010/11/out-to-get-her-ctd.html