That's the meme the Democrats have to sell.
They have to convince the Republican Party that running conservatives is death, and they have to keep running "moderates." Preferably with a Democratic VP candidate.
The assumption is that nobody will look at the actual election history.
If McCain had picked Jindal, or another real conservative, the media would have slaughtered him with exactly the same enthusiasm.
This news story says more about the people running McCain's campaign than it does about Palin, assuming all these ass-covering anonymous advisers even exist.