ERICK ERICKSON from Red State writes:

There is a serious problem developing among some of [Sarah] Palin’s biggest fans....

[T]here are Republicans who like — even love — Sarah Palin who think some of her handlers might not give her the best of advice or think she should or should not do one thing or another. And I’m finding ... that when those points are brought up, the person raising the point is often inappropriately attacked as a Palin hater.

Allahpundit from Hot Air responds:

How did she get to this rare, exalted, and enviable position? Erickson’s surely right that part of it comes from an instinct of wanting to defend her after the relentless media nastiness towards her, but obviously it’s more than that. Is it cultural identification, that she’s blue-collar and familiar in a way that most cookie-cutter pols aren’t, which makes the slings and arrows of liberal “elites” sting twice as much? Is it a function of the leadership vacuum in the GOP, with the emergence of someone young and charismatic such a precious thing that some supporters will do battle with anyone who risks upsetting that? Is it just that she really is more unshakably conservative in her policies than anyone else?

I rather suspect it’s not the criticism, it’s the critics.