spruce:

If any other Governor from any of the other 49 states suddenly arrived on the national scene as a complete unknown to all except a very small handful of people, then they too would face the scrutiny that Palin has received.

I have no problem with scrutiny. I have a problem with scrutinizers presuming that the object of their work is the "bottom of the barrel" before they begin, as I have seen her elsewhere described. Lithwick's language betrays her conclusion...