Lead story on the Today show this am was the release, and ensuing media frenzy, of the release of 24,000 pages of Palin's emails from when she was guv. Must be a slow news day or just another media driven witch hunt. I've stated before, I'm no fan of hers so I fail to see the fascination the MSM has with her.
I guess I'm just lucky. The only time I ever hear about Sarah Palin anymore is when people make threads here in the forums - either deriding or criticizing her, or lamenting how much she gets derided or criticized by the media (or, more generally, how much attention it pays to her).
As to why she apparently gets so much attention from some media outlets, I'd guess the answer is pretty simple - because paying attention to her is good for ratings. A lot of people apparently love to mock and/or attack her (and thus pay attention when media sources mock and/or attack her), and a lot of people seem to like to defend her when she is mocked and/or attacked. I'd guess that the media follows all things Sarah because a large number of people pay attention when it follows all things Sarah. My hunch - and it's little more than a hunch - is that she's not an unwilling or unappreciative subject of the attention.
When it comes to the oft-identified liberal obsession with her, that dynamic is fairly easy to understand as well. Liberals don't fear her as an opposition candidate as much as they fear other potential candidates. They want attention to be placed on her. They want to inspire affection for her among the Republican base. They pray (though perhaps unsuccessfully) that she might somehow be the Republican candidate. I wouldn't say that she couldn't possibly beat President Obama - under the right circumstances, she could just as most any Republican candidate could - but she wouldn't have as good a chance as some others might. Mrs. Palin as a general election opponent would be a good development for President Obama.
In reality though, his fate will depend to a great degree on what's going on with the economy - or the general perception there of - 17 months from now. If the unemployment rate is 14%, whichever Republican is running against him will win. If the unemployment rate is 5%, he will beat whichever Republican is running against him. Who that Republican is will matter, but to a lesser degree.