Gamecock, first of all, let me commend you for persisting and challenging "groupthink," which many of my "intellectual" friends suffer from. My perspective very closely follows that of your own. I have no interest in all of the hubbub surrounding Sarah Palin, and, frankly, she's the reason I didn't vote for McCain at the 11th hour (that and his lack of balls on the TARP issue), even though I do not like a severe power imbalance like the one that exists now.
At the time, I thought the far-left's preoccupation with Palin was more than a bit comical, since comparisons between her, as an 11th hour pick of McCain's for VP, and Obama, who was running for the highest office in the world, only highlighted his own shortcomings. It's not as though she was running for President. And, frankly, one of those "So easy a caveman can do it" neanderthals could've beaten McCain amidst the economic 9/11 that befell us. But, I have no interest in Sarah Palin and I hope to God she's not the best the GOP can put forth come 2012; that her celebrity status wanes. I do want to see some balance restored to Washington, lacking a viable third-party option that understands fiscal responsibility.
I have yet to make up my mind about Obama. On the one hand, I have many bright friends who think him the greatest thing since sliced bread like so many here, most who think him still in campaign mode and voting "present" on a great many issues, and still others who see him as nothing more than a cold, calculating politician who brought his Chicago political machine with him to Washington with a very restitutionist, redistributionist, reconstitutionist agenda. He may be all or none of these things, but it's fair enough to challenge his "pedigree," a vetting process which was severly lacking in the media during the campaign, and I was hammered on here for doing just that, as you are now.
FWIW, my wife graduated valedictorian of her law school class, is published in the Harvard Women's Law Journal, and served on law review. She lost out on a judicial clerkship to a 2.9 "quota" student. I'm not quite sure what else she could've done. She said law review was very "political" and not much of a feather in the cap. Just an anecdote... she did not attend Harvard.
But it is neither ridiculous, partisan, or lacking merit to posit the skepticism you have, which I myself wholeheartedly share. Frankly, it's the gravitational pull-osi of the far left that I'm more concerned about. If the Dems get crushed in 2010, and Obama shows his policy starts measuring up to his pedigree, I will give him my vote. So far, I don't like the bedsharing with GE, GM, and GS, which makes it extremely difficult to exercise objectivity and command.