I think everybody is missing the ultimate irony here.
Vice-presidential candidates have no impact whatsoever on the election. A good pick gives his presidential candidate a short boost, a weak pick does the opposite. After a few weeks this effect disappears from the polls.
It has ALWAYS been this way. It is part and parcel of the nature of the position of VP and the election process.
The attack on Sarah Palin was one of the most pointless ones I've ever seen.

Do we get the (nowadays) traditional bit of all French are cowards?

Does this mean that you hold to Tocqueville's original definition?
Because there is little there to distinguish the US from say Australia, Canada or New Zealand.

I have no problem with A.E. as long as it is a clearcut facts based notion. For example, the US is exceptional because it is the strongest superpower in the world at the moment. Or, in the 1950's the middle class in the US had the most luxurious standard of living in the world.
But the moment this sort of notion turns ideological and people start to build policies on this abstract conceit of we're exceptional on this intrinsic Platonic level...
Things will go pear-shaped.

The British empire fell in large part because they decided they were exceptional and that meant they had to conquer stuff just because, instead of because it was prime real estate. All of the later conquests of their colonial empire cost more resources than they delivered.

The US will not remain a superpower/shining city on the hill, for very long if it acts like it is some sort intrinsic fact of life instead of something that has to be carefully maintained.

Amazing that they let the guy improvise what he says. President obama at least has the good sense to use a teleprompter as much as possible.

American exceptionalism in it's purest ideological form is by the way a downright stupid notion. As stupid as the British exceptionalism of the 19th century, or the exceptionalism of the Roman Empire. Tocqueville be damned.

Don't forget.
In normal circumstances...
To most of the rest of the world, the US president is just that foreign guy that does a lot of sound bites on the evening news. President Obama delivers good sound bites.
As long as he keeps doing just that he'll remain popular. Because his actions don't seem to have any real impact outside of the USA.

When unusual circumstances come along 'furriners' want to see the 'Prez' step up to the plate and show leadership and use all those cool resources he has as the boss of a superpower.
However, if they and the president disagree about the answer to the:"What are unusual circumstances?" question, the presidents popularity tends to collapse at an impressive speed.

"Do the Germans insult themselves over the Holocaust?"

Actually, yes they have. This sort of thing is pretty standard after a regime change.

In general, when prosecuting terrorists one does not want to show favoritism to one side or the other.
And judging from that Crooksandliars article the US justice system is going easy on domestic terrorists. Sort of like how the justice system of the Weimar republic went easy on nazi terrorists and how the justice system of the Netherlands was soft on leftwing would be terrorists in the 1980's and 1990's.
Not a healthy attitude.

I'm willing to wager a lot of money that the folks that actually own&operate the US prisons (that is a private enterprise in the US after all) would truly hate that idea.