This is what Nate Silver does best (not arguing with people much smarter than him):
I think we can acknowledge that Palin had a rough go of things with the media... Complaining about the media is not a media strategy... People weren't turned off by Palin because of the questions about her wardrobe or baby Trig. They were turned off because -- fairly or not -- they couldn't become comfortable with the idea of her sitting in the White House. Giving interviews to the likes of John Ziegler or exchanging nastygrams with the Anchorage Daily News isn't going to get her to be taken more seriously.
Emphasis mine. They might have also been turned off by her inability to name a daily newspaper or her inability to articulate her views on international affairs without looking like a 5th grader. Again, can't really blame the media.
