GOP faithful still pinning their hopes on Sarah Palin.

Sarah Palin lost the election, but to many, her light hasn't dimmed.

In fact, the Alaska governor, with her sassy, frontier-woman image and rock-ribbed, right-of-center politics, has become the repository for the hopes and dreams of conservative Republicans across the nation. Even here in liberal Connecticut, she has a devoted circle of fans.

"Most politicians say what they think people want them to say," said Melita Motherway, a 46-year-old mom and engineer from southeastern Connecticut. "She's different. She absolutely practices what she preaches."

As they set about restoring the shine to the national GOP's tarnished brand, many Republicans have seized upon Palin as the one who will lead them back to the win column, and help them endure the Barack Obama years.

"The Republican Party has lost its way," said James Bailey Brislin, a 24-year-old party activist from Enfield. "It became dominated by D.C. insiders who are completely out of touch with what's going on in Enfield, Connecticut. … Sarah Palin is who we need moving forward."

After I first read this article I was left virtually speechless. These people seem to have deified Sarah Palin in the same way that some Democrats deified Barack Obama.

Those Democrats were wrong, as many are now learning, and the Republicans who are doing the same to Palin are unbelievably wrong.

The idea that Sarah Palin is ANYTHING but a politically opportunistic chameleon should have been napalmed by her performance during the John McCain campaign. She completely changed her entire personality to fit what the campaign asked her to be. As one Alaskan recently pointed out, since returning to Alaska she has even shed herself of that weird "Fargo" accent she had adopted while on the campaign stump.

The funny thing is that now with Alaskans finally learning who Sarah Palin really is, and being quite disappointed, the rest of the country is being suckered in by the manufactured image far more effectively then even we were. I have to say that is frightening.

Now the argument can be leveled that there were a number of liberals who believed that Obama could walk on water, and that certainly is true. But for most of us, we always knew he is just a man, but we BELIEVED he was the perfect man for our current situation. For myself at least that trust has not been reduced at all. He has done things that I do not 100% agree with, but I always knew that he would. However his intellect and compassion are still very much in evidence and I still retain my hope for the future of America.

Now Sarah Palin, on the other hand, has been dramatically reduced in stature to many Alaskans.

Her gas pipeline plan is in serious trouble, her ethics are still under attack, and the drama of her family is still making headlines around the world. All in all Sarah Palin, from our perspective at least, is the last person on whom to be pinning the hopes of an entire political party.

Now speaking only as a partisan I would say, keep right on believing! Sarah Palin in 2012 sounds like a jim dandy idea!

But if I were speaking as a friend I would say, surely there must be a stronger, more ethical, more intelligent candidate that the Republicans can pick. For if there is not then I truly believe we are witnessing the end of the Republican party as we know it. And I am not at all sure that is a bad thing.