It wasn't this acknowledgement that was surprising to anyone:

Sarah Palin says she is seriously considering a run for the White House, and she believes she could beat President Obama in 2012, the former Alaska governor told ABC News' Barbara Walters.

 

"I'm looking at the lay of the land now, and ... trying to figure that out, if it's a good thing for the country, for the discourse, for my family, if it's a good thing," Palin said in an interview scheduled to air in full Dec. 9 on ABC as part of Walters' "10 Most Fascinating People" of 2010.

 

Asked Walters: "If you ran for president, could you beat Barack Obama?"

 

"I believe so," Palin said.

Most anyone who has been conscious the last 2 years could have predicted as much.  But what might have surprised some would have been this revelation uncovered by ABC:

"The reality is that Palin's direction is determined almost entirely by her instincts -- or, as [Palin's friend and former White House aide to Presidents Nixon and Ford] Fred Malek puts it, 'There is no über-strategy.' She did not game out a path forward when agreeing to two book deals with HarperCollins and then signing on with the Washington Speakers Bureau, Fox and then her television series.

 

"That same mind-set explains the lack of cohesion to Palin's virtual organization. As [SarahPAC treasurer Tim] Crawford, Van Flein, Davis and Mansour concur, the inhabitants of Palin World have loosely defined duties and thus invariably play outside their lanes."

 

Draper went on to write "there is no chief of staff - though 'there's been discussion,' Van Flein says, 'because the logistics are overwhelming and the demand is phenomenal.' Nor, since [Communications Director Meghan] Stapleton departed in February, does Palin have a press person - with the result that up to eight or nine of her functionaries will find themselves fielding (and usually pocket-vetoing) media requests at any one time.

 

"Just as Palin heavily edits or at times completely writes most of her own speeches and insists on reviewing any statement issued by SarahPAC, she also must approve all media contact by her subordinates, Van Flein told me."

What this means is that all the Palin decisions that were questioned by the experts, but have proven to be ingenious, came not from some Karl Rove/James Carville/David Axelrod mastermind.  They came from Sarah Palin's own personal instincts.  

It's apparent that she's not the political idiot the left desperately wants her to be.  Their continued perpetuation of that belief amongst their own ranks may prove the underestimation she needs to accomplish defeating their chosen one.