We don't know what's on the teleprompter, but I think it's safe to assume he's got a script on there. It means he's fanatical about controlling his message to the point that not one word can go off script.
Uh, do you remember when his teleprompter went fubar, and he actually repeated a topic, um, then mentioned that he'd already been over it? As I have said in the past, his teleprompter-dependency certainly means something, but let me be clear - I don't think it means what you think it means
Her inability to campaign is not supposed; it is demonstrated, and crib noting such simple words is yet another demonstration.
Campaigning with/for a "maverick" like McCain is not the best way for a "true" conservative to get started in national politics. I wonder if you'd be able to say the same thing if she'd been chosen as a running mate for, say, Romney or Huckabee(not that either of them are what I'm looking for, but certainly closer than McCain). Maybe she'd have done better if she didn't have to support someone with baggage like cap'n'trade, McCain-Feingold, etc. His staff screwed the pooch with Palin overall, anyway.
I don't mean to excuse Palin - she has made her fair share of oopses - but she did not go down without a good amount of help(as you mentioned).
This fact alone (ie, the fact of her inability to campaign) makes her not the best person that can currently run, because someone with half her policies and twice her chances to win would get us more.
I'll say again, if we actually had a candidate with the balls to come out and speak up for liberty and laissez-faire, we might stand a chance. The strategy you advocate didn't get the R's very far in '08 - they offered a candidate who was honorable and respectable, with a long history of service, but who was willing to give on all the wrong things.
Who is this "us", anyway? The "us" you seem to represent here should be awfully happy with who's in office now.
...I liked Thompson, too. I'd vote for him in a Republican primary.