I'm only familiar with the Sarah Palin I saw campaigning with John McCain as his VP choice...She's not very bright, and imo when she got to Washington DC and tried to play with the big boys she was over her head - the GOP used her until she became a punchline, never a serious VP candidate.
She was an attractive woman with an outdoorsy image that could put meat on the table and from Alaska too, not a place for the weak of spirit. Then she began to speak, what little respect I had for McCain scattered in the wind and I knew Obama had the election cinched.