Keyboard / Character Viewer malfunctioning under Lion

Show/Hide Keyboard Viewer seems to be broken under Lion. I can show the Viewer using the menu bar icon, but I can't always close it by choosing "Hide Keyboard Viewer" - some times it closes, some times it doesn't. It always reverts the menu back to "Show Keyboard Viewer" as if the Viewer were closed though, even if the Viewer is open.

Worse, closing it using the red "close" button on the keyboard window doesn't work. Sure, it closes the Viewer. But it won't stay closed! Hitting the spacebar on my keyboard (MacBook internal or external Apple wired keyboard) launches the Viewer for that keyboard again, and again, and again. Some times I am sure I have it finally closed, then when waking from screensaver it launches again! The only solution seems to be hiding it using the menu bar command, which as I said above doesn't always work either!

Coupled with the very small default size in Lion (really, why is it only a few inches wide? It used to be bigger and it won't remember my settings for size!) it seems as if the Keyboard Viewer has undergone a major regression in this version of the OS.

The Character Viewer is showing many of the same problematic behaviors (launching itself on wake, etc.)... it's gotten so frustrating that I am almost afraid to use the thing!