What happened to Palin was exactly what happened to Trump but ten years earlier. Even Bush in his second term didn't have as much shit flung his way. Leftists hacked her email account, wished raped on her and tried to pressure her to abort her baby because it had Down Syndrome. And then after the election a "journalist" moved in next door to her just to harass her and her family even more. If you weren't a dyed-in-the-wool right winger in 2008 you were bombarded with the most vile anti-Palin takes imaginable. And for her efforts of sticking her neck out and actually trying to even pretend to care about the people voting for her party good old Hanoi John threw her under the bus and blamed her for his loss, despite (as
@Krokodil Overdose pointed out) his polling figures actually shooting
up after announcing her as his running mate.