Posted on 03/22/2011 5:08:01 AM PDT by FreeManDC
Sarah Palin’s standing with the American public has undergone a stunning reversal of fortune, according to two recently released polls. Just two and a half years ago, Sarah Palin’s star was ascending to the political heavens. A solid 53% of Americans held a favorable opinion of Mrs. Palin, while only 28% had a negative view. But according to a March 3 Bloomberg News poll, only 28% of Americans now hold a positive view of the former Alaska governor, while a stunning 60% see her in an unfavorable light. And a March 16 Washington Post-ABC poll found Palin’s negative ratings fell to a nadir of 37% among Republicans and right-leaning independents. How do we explain this stunning reversal for the immensely ambitious political wunderkind? Following John McCain’s surprise selection of Palin on August 29, 2008, and her well-received acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention, she notched an impressive favorability rating of 53% as a virtual political unknown (all figures I cite are from the Gallup poll, unless otherwise noted). But as the campaign jolted toward the November election, stories began to circulate about a simmering discord between the McCain and Palin campaign staffs. “She is a diva. She takes no advice from anyone,” complained a top McCain adviser just days before the election. “Also, she is playing for her own future and sees herself as the next leader of the party.” Following the GOP’s sweeping losses on November 4, Palin’s favorability ratings still registered 48% — a respectable number, considering the predictable miscues of the grueling campaign. Soon shaking off the post-election blues, Palin’s first move was to establish SarahPAC, which would eventually raise $1 million for conservative candidates around the country. Throughout 2009, Palin’s favorability ratings cruised along in the acceptable low to mid 40s range. Palin’s heralded book Going Rogue came out on November 17. Even though the autobiography would eventually sell over 2 million copies, it also raised questions about the former candidate’s conservative credentials — even her character. Going Rogue highlights Palin’s endorsement of the controversial Title IX quota program. It reveals her predilection for gender-baiting clichés like “I’ve been living in a man’s world all my life.” The autobiography even suggests a mean streak. When then-boyfriend Todd told his friends that Sarah didn’t know how to kiss, Palin’s judgment was as harsh as it was swift: she “learned a lesson about guys that day: even the good ones can act like jerks.” As if women never gossip about their mates’ sexual prowess! Throughout the year Palin appeared at endless Tea Party rallies around the country. On February 6, 2010, Palin keynoted the inaugural Tea Party convention in Nashville, TN, cementing her position as the charismatic leader for the burgeoning movement. But in mid-2010, the apparently unstoppable train suddenly took a pro-feminist turn. During a May 15 speech at a Susan B. Anthony conference, Palin unveiled the term “Mama Grizzly,” and invoked the words “feminism” and “feminist” no less than a dozen times. This provoked predictable attacks from the NOW blowhards — and raised conservative eyebrows as well. Palin’s response was to accuse her critics, including her female detractors, of chauvinism — a stance that began to wear thin in the eyes of many. The cracks in Mrs. Palin’s formidable reputation began to show themselves in the Gallup poll taken after the November 2 elections. While she garnered a steady 40% favorability rating, for the first time ever her unfavorable numbers spiked to 52%. Perhaps the decisive turning point, though, was the day that Palin decided to take on Barbara Bush. First ladies occupy a revered spot in the American iconography, but apparently Palin was too tone-deaf to understand this. When the former first lady remarked that Palin might prefer to stay in Alaska rather than throw herself in the hurly-burly of national politics, Palin rebuked Mrs. Bush — and her family — as a group of elite “blue bloods.” Wrong move, Mrs. Palin. Then came her “blood libel” gaffe on January 12. And just last month, Palin insinuated former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum was “Neanderthal.” Manhattan Institute scholar Heather Mac Donald has ridiculed the “feminist strain” of the Mama Grizzlies and notes that Palin “is living up to the most skeptical assessment of her.” But the real reason for her plummeting support is that many Americans are confused about who Sarah Palin is and what she really stands for. Is Mrs. Palin the tireless spokesperson for a recrudescent silent majority? Is she a have-it-all, do-it-all Super Mom? A dazzling, but ephemeral Media Maven? Or is she an old-school, quota-embracing, male-bashing feminist who also happens to be pro-life? Is she a shake-and-bake liberal whose political resumé includes support for the ill-fated bridge to nowhere and a record-breaking $6.6 billion state operating budget in 2007? Until Mrs. Palin takes steps to reconcile these apparent contradictions, these questions will continue to be grist for the political mill.
1) Carey Roberts is known to be a Palin hater;
2) Saying she has a mean streak for disliking the actions of her kiss-and-tell boyfriend (at the time) is way over the top and says more about Roberts than it does Sarah (Roberts hot for Todd?);
3) Has anyone looked at the internals of these polls, and/or where they were taken? Does anyone believe a poll taken in New York City is going to be favorable of Palin (Bloomberg's was, I'll bet);
4) Palin won't be Quayled, because she fights back, unlike the human potatoe, or any other Bush Blue Blood type;
5) The lamestream media is JUST NOW digging for gold nuggets in Going Rogue? I thought the AP put 11 reporters on it, and they couldn't find anything.
6) These polls and articles such as this are designed for an audience of one: Sarah Palin herself, to convince her not to run. They fear her like the devils quail at the cross.
“Why apologize to the Muslims?”—Sarah Palin March 20, 2011.
Sounds like a good campaign slogan.
We’ll all see who is right when Sarah announces she’s running.
If all the Palin-haters are correct, then, she will fade in the primaries.
If all the Palin-supporters are correct, then when she announces, the race will be over for the “boys”.
So LET HER RUN -— we will see who is right.
I think the supporters will be correct. She is a star and she relates to America.
Great point about the large politically illiterate segment of our country. The Peggy Joseph types are going to hate Palin, because they instictively know that she is going to interrupt the flow of Obama Cash onto their EBT cards.
What is amazing is that you Palinistas call every politician by some derogatory nickname but almost go into hysterics with something as bland as ‘Divine Diva of the Sub Arctic’. Mocking? Hardly.
This is part of the reason that she probably won’t even run. Her support has been reduced to a support-group of zealots and she knows it. Why else would someone who has been so definitive about everything say that she is waiting to see who is going to run before she declares?
It doesn’t matter if the polls are correct or not. The media has already done a number on her and her best option is to continue to appeal to her dedicated followers and enjoy the good life.
Would you format this- please.
thank you for your formatting...
nothing short of death will stop her, and that is why I fear for her safety and keep her in my prayers, every night.
I believe she walks with the Lord, just like Washington and Reagan and others....
You dont have any proof that she is unelectable and if you cite poll numbers then you are historically ignorant since these early polls are all meaningless until people actually campaign, historically Rudy, Hillary, Howard Dean, Steve Forbes, Paul Tsongas, George Bush in 1980, were the picks in polls as the overwhelming favorite to win their respective nomination and as we can see none of them ever did, why? Because once campaigning and the electorate actually got serious in comparing candidates then the separation began
Wow, that is one big paragraph.
This is bull s#it. She will be the next president of the US.
Some men don’t like her because she has larger b@lls.
Some women don’t like her because she can do it all and look good doing it.
>> Well we used to get fake-bad-Sarah-Palin news from pissant, but ... he fall down, and go boom.<<
I’m watching and expecting him to show up with a different name soon.
So, what harm is there in her running?
Why are the repubs trying to destroy her? If they are telling us the truth - that she is a complete idiot - then her running would only reinforce that.
Hummmm... maybe they know that she actually is NOT an idiot and they just can’t let America know.
Like I said, let her run, there’s no harm in that.
(by the way, have you seen any of her debates when she ran for Gov in Alaska? That would tell you why they don’t want her to be in the debates.)
That’s the problem. The whole damn field looks as weak as water.
And Sarah is no more outstanding than the others.
Huh? I guess we are looking at different people then.
You are trying to push me into a Pissant moment, aren’t you?
I’ve said enough about it already. The same lightening rod quality that sets off alarms on this forum and gets people zotted is what causes vast swathes of the population to reject Palin as a candidate.
Too controversial, too inexperienced. And for my money, too tacky.
You like her? Great! Go ahead and donate all the money you want if and when she declares. But I think even she knows the facts and will stay out.
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