Regarding Palin, there is a natural instability in democracy towards anti-elitism. Many voters are attracted to a leader like themselves (a hockey / soccer mom with dysfunctional family and modest IQ), forgetting that they themselves would make a terrible president or vice-president. I do think the Republican base will like / likes Palin, and there is a chance she will appeal to lot of swing voters.
Is Romney the favorite for 2012? I've heard a lot of good things about him, but his RNC speech is pretty thoroughly middlebrow. Not that I disagree with every point, and certainly he had to tailor it to his audience, but I detect no signs of a large brain (unless you normalize to the MBA population).
I know few Americans care, but people in Europe think Palin is a joke. Another thing I've heard is that they don't believe Obama can overcome all the (perhaps hidden) racism to win the election. We will see!
Exciting action photo from Trento:
