She was effectively crowned in 2008 too, as memory serves. Funny things happen in politics...
As much as people have been saying "The Republican Party is going to self-destruct and be cast out of power for 40 years, wandering like Moses in the desert" for the last eight years (and yes, people started saying that after the 2006 midterms)....I just don't see it happening. There is no "marketplace of ideas" anymore. Even if the Republican platform is to give every man, woman and child in America a steaming shit sandwich, there are still a good 30-40% of the population who will proudly vote for that shit sandwich because God, freedom, bald eagles, something something. And then blame the Democrats for the shit sandwich.
There are regions of the country where Republicans could openly kill someone, steal their money, and piss on the corpse and STILL get elected. At this point, I'm just trying to figure out how in holy fuck the Republicans still have their power firmly entrenched in our state legislature, after six years of the most pants-on-head 'tardburger legislative sessions in the history of North Carolina (and mind you, this is a state that had an official eugenics board up until the 1970's). Where they have been BLATANTLY crooked and power-grabbing and trying to change all the rules now that they're in power, to prevent ever losing power again. And still, a terrifying number of people support them because "least they ain't Democrats".
Polarization and the reduction of political allegiance to tribalism is a more potent force than most people give credit to.