Among Palin's most intense supporters, acceptance and anger

Michelle McCormick, 28, left her home in Texas in March and was, almost unbelievably, commuting to Iowa on the weekends. In July she made it official, moving to Iowa to stump for Palin believing she would run. She said she "respected" her "role model's" decision.

"I'm disappointed that I'm not going to have a candidate I can get behind for the 2012 GOP nomination, but I really do want people to know I so respect Gov. Palin and it doesn't diminish my respect for her at all," McCormick told ABC News. "She doesn't owe me or [fellow devotee] Peter Singleton anything. We loved talking to the folks and getting engaged in politics."

But Walshe also notes an eruption of anger by some of the commenters at the Conservatives4Palin fan site, long the home of some of Palin's most intensely ardent admirers.

TENCOLE posted: "I feel sad, disappointed and very bitter. I feel like the bride left at the alter and not feeling very good about the person that left me there. This could have been handled much better......we deserve better...the "boots on the ground" deserve better. I feel "led on," and when I think of the numerous times I defended her/us against just such an announcement as this, I get nauseous ... Her speeches coming up. you know like this weekend ... guess what, I don't care. She has made me start thinking that posters that I have been arguing with ad nauseaum, were right all along...*tear*"

CitizenG100 said the decision was an "unpleasant surprise and the "quitter meme is now set in stone."

"As to how her decision affects her own political future, the short answer is she now no longer has one. She has proven her critics right and some of her supporters wrong ... She could have run and lost and still won again in the future. She cannot ever win having bailed out on running this time though ... Resigning in order to maintain a run for higher office is one thing, but resigning in order to become a permanent kingmaker/media commentator/cheerleader is quite another."

Angry threads are all over the site as well as supporters posting that they don't buy her reason for not running. jeffjackie posted, "I love Sarah, but the ‘I don't need a title' meme is dumb. President Palin would be far more impactful than citizen Sarah Palin."

In a separate article, Walshe reports that Palin didn't even tell her closest confidants of her decision until the last minute.