Oh, I absolutely agree that Palin wasn't perfect. But then I'd say that Trump wasn't perfect either. The bottom line is that the sheer, visceral hatred she inspired can't be explained away with "she a dum dum". Anyone with an account on this website should know firsthand, you don't get psychotically angry and try to ruin the life of somebody just because you deem them a lolcow. Leftists hated her on a personal level that I can only fathom was because she was a successful, powerful, popular, female, matriarchal candidate who struck a chord with Republicans (and wasn't too bad on the eyes either). She embodied everything that was anathema to their worldview and therefore needed to be torn down and destroyed. If any left-leaning Kiwis want to correct the record and explain how her supposedly being dumb merited such a vitriolic and violent response then go ahead, but nothing else I can think of can explain the sheer amount of bile that she inspired from leftists at the time.