I'll bite on this one. I consider myself independent but that doesn't really matter. The reason so many people continue to talk about Sarah Palin is because she is drawing huge crowds and helping grow the Tea Party Movement. It would be one thing if, like you said, she lost in the election and that's that. But it's not, she went home, quit her job as Governor and went into full-time campaign mode. She is angling for a leadership role in the Tea Party Movement and by-proxy the Republican party, she is out stumping for candidates in congressional races. It's not "trifling" to bring her up because, like it or not, she is becoming a huge force in conservative politics.
It's not trifling to keep bringing up the Tea Part thing either. It's an extremist movement that is using the threat (implied or spoken) of splitting the Republican party, weakening it at a time when the party can least handle it, in order to force centrist politicians to move farther to the right. It is a divisive movement that does not even try to hide that point. Moderate or reasonable conservatives have a lot to fear from that group and the Teabaggers know this and exploit it.
