Or, like your odd respect for J.C. Watts, is this view based on complete lack of information?
http://www.habitablezone.com/currentevents/messages/520246.html

In her first speech as VP on the ticket she claimed that she had opposed the bridge to nowhere.... turns out that was a lie, and that she had actively supported it.

Her stance on earmarks is also a flip flop....

and Do take a look at: http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2008/08/sarah_palin_fishing_labor_oil.html

Her single greatest source of support: The Republican Party, with $75,000. People involved in the fishing industry have donated at least $70,000. The governor's husband is a commercial fisherman.

People listing their business as real estate have donated $46,000, attorneys at least $30,000, and lobbyists $9,800.

Palin, who supports opening a part of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas development (a move, remind you, which McCain opposes, while he pushes for off-shore drilling), has collected about $13,500 from people involved with oil firms.

His choice, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, comes from a state whose lifeblood is oil. Palin favors opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas development, something McCain opposes. Her family even gets one of its paychecks from the oil industry: Palin's husband, Todd Palin, earned $46,790 last year as a facility operator for BP Alaska in Prudhoe Bay.

....
Palin opposes the Bush administration's decision to list polar bears as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. Alaska sued Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne earlier this month to try to overturn his decision.

Palin argues there isn't enough evidence to support a listing, and she fears it will harm oil and gas development in prime polar bear habitat off Alaska's northern and northwestern coasts.

Ethics could be another issue. Palin has fashioned herself a good-government maverick in the style of McCain, but Democrats could go after her on that, too.

The Legislature is investigating her firing of the state public safety commissioner. A legislative oversight committee wants to know if the commissioner was dismissed because he refused to fire a trooper who went through a messy divorce from Palin's sister. The investigation is expected to wrap up around election time.

Campaign contributions Palin collected earlier in her political career could also provide fodder for Democratic campaign ads, tying her to an Alaska Republican political scandal from which she has tried to distance herself.

Palin raised at least $4,500 for her unsuccessful 2002 campaign for lieutenant governor from executives of VECO Corp., an oil services contractor at the heart of a massive influence-peddling investigation. Alaska Republican Sen. Ted Stevens is accused of accepting more than $250,000 in home renovations and gifts from VECO executives and failing to disclose them on his annual financial statements; the senator says he is innocent.

Palin received $500 each from nine VECO executives in December 2001, including then-CEO Bill Allen, who last year pleaded guilty to federal conspiracy, bribery and tax charges and agreed to cooperate in the corruption investigation.