The most striking number from the Washington Post poll was that only 17% of all Americans surveyed said that they held a strongly favorable view of the former Alaska governor. In contrast, 41% of respondents strongly disapproved of her. Palin’s rating with Independents mirrors her overall 37%-55% approval/disapproval rating. Her favorability rating gains one point with Independents to 38%, while her disapproval rating holds steady at 55%.
Palin is popular with the Tea Party crowd, as she has a 60% approval rating with them, but the Tea Party as a whole is more popular than Palin herself. With all adults surveyed the Tea Party has a 41% approval rating. Although the gap is small, it is possible that Palin’s lack of personal popularity could end up damaging the Tea Party movement in the eyes of the nation at large. The Tea Party movement, even with its recent run of negative publicity, remains more popular than Sarah Palin.
Palin’s approval ratings have remained in steady decline since October of 2008. Her book didn’t help. Her gig at Fox News has not helped, and it is safe to say that a reality show on the Discovery Channel is not going to revive the flat lined national political perception of her. America has made up its mind about Sarah Palin, and has all but closed the door on any White House ambitions that she might hold. Even the nationally polarizing Hillary Clinton was able to have an overall approval rating around 50% during the 2008 campaign. By the numbers, Palin is even more polarizing than Mrs. Clinton was.
The half a term governor of Alaska is a niche brand whose appeal is limited to Republicans. It would be a disaster for the Republican Party if Sarah Palin was their presidential nominee in 2012. A Palin nomination would virtually ensure not only an Obama reelection, but also an expansion of the Democratic majorities in Congress. Never in modern American electoral history has there been a less popular politician as seriously discussed as a presidential candidate. Palin may have no chance of winning but that might not stop the GOP from nominating her.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
And now she is grabbing onto the tea party, a group that in recent time has shown nothing but disrespect for our government. Thats the wrong way to go about it.
I listened to Palin today at the tea party rally, she was vague, going from subject to subject but never mentioning a single fix for anything. She used Drill now drill now, but never mentioned that the oil company’s will not build new refinerys to bring the price of oil down. It was a speech filled with cliches. Small government? Are you kidding? You will never see that again. Repeal the healthcare? Not now that the public is getting better info on it and the approval ratings for it is going up. Now that the country has found out that the ACORN bust over child prostitutes was totally fake.
The Republican party needs to run from Sarah as fast as possible and leave her and the tea party hanging in the wind. The lies dont work anymore
Ha ha ha! Run Sarah Run!
Lets hope the approval doesn’t drop too low. I was hoping to see her run for president. I had a great time watching her and she helped make a bundle of money for Saturday Night Live.
I cursed the day John McCain discovered her and brought her out to the world.
Why no one is asking her about the deficit and big debt she left for Alaskans.
Like the last administration got any respect. It was more vial then the tea parties.
And Obama wasn’t vague at all with a 17 minute answer, for a yes or no answer. He was totally vague.
And I think Sarah Palin and the Tea Party are more popular then the polls are saying.
The oil companies would love drill but the enviromental movement lobby stops them.
Healthcare. The government should not or cannot make us buy something.
Oh please let her run!!! Can you imagine the fun it will be to watch her go down in flames…again??? I seriously don’t think that the core of the Republican party are that stupid or star struck. If it has to be a Republican let it be Ron Paul. He actually makes some sense and isn’t a religous zealot.
Anyone who wants to see Obama re-elected should contribute to her campaign should she throw herself in the ring until she is nominated. No one could do a better job of ensuring Obama’s re-election than Sarah Palin as the GOP- nominee. Run Sarah! Run!
This is not true. Palin rates are bigger than Obama, even Ron Paul could defeat Obama :
Sarah Palin loves herself, and TO GET what she wants, and expects at any cost, — and that is Money, Power, and the Control it brings, but the bottom line is,–“”-ATTENTION!””
PLEASE!
The whole ‘grassroots’ lies about the Tea Party are as bogus as Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh.
The Tea Party is not a grassroots anything, it was started from the top down by the same nefarious crowd that brought you the financial crisis and
the whole surge of right wing nut cases out there.
They have hired DCI to help them with their fake group personna.
The same type of disinginous bums that have stolen 2 elections and
formerly represented the murderers in Burma.
Enough said.
@Rafael Kafka, uh-huh and where are those polls? They don’t exist. Palin has the worst ratings of any major potential presidential candidate, and as much as I like Dr. Paul, he has a snowball’s chance in hell of winning the GOP nomination.
Republicans did not bring on the financial crisis fyi! do your homework before you say anything. try far left democrats comparing everything to the civil rights movement and that everything in this country is a right! healthcare, education, property, Owning a home a “right” none of these things are rights. they are a privilege!!! What ever happened to hard work and accountability? chris dodd and barney frank put legislation through to make banks give loans to people that could not afford them. thats what caused the melt down. They were the ones that over saw everything with freddie and fannie. Im pretty sure that having trillion dollar deficits and raising taxes in def the way to get the economy moving again. hmmmmm good idea
@Shiva,
The Republican party exists to promote the needs of the rich. But there are not enough rich to win elections. So they have to dupe large sections of the population to vote Republican. Sarah is in charge of that duping.
But those who run the Republican party know she’s nuts, so whenever she attempts to get REAL power, they have to knock her down a bit. That’s why one day Faux News is all gung ho on Sarah, then a week later she’ll get knocked down a peg.
If you think about it, it’s a brilliant strategy.
@REPULICANS2010,
Lol. Its ok that bush dragged us into a multi billion dollar war,and is responsible for the deaths of thousands of us soldiers and innocent iraqis,and didn
t even find any of the weapons he claimed where there,but obama proposes something aimed at saving lives, and the idiots get their pantys in a twist. ITs ok, eventually they will realize, that the rest of the world already knows the whole group is a joke.
Looking on from Australia, we can’t believe how the political right in America is so eager to promote candidates who are so obviously unfit for the Presidency. As the world, its technologies and its problems grow ever more complex, candidates need to be highly educated and of manifest intelligence, together with having appropriate experience.
Not bird-brained know-nothings like Sarah Palin.
@SuperMenace,
58% of the Democrats votes YES for the war on Iraq. BOTH parties voted for the war :rolleyes: And don’t forget it is CONGRESS that allowed us to go to war, not Bush. Bush just asked for the permission. check Res. 114
When you get down to it BOTH parties need to reinvent themselves. The Democrats are way too left, and the Republicans are way to right. Maybe a third party needs to be created to actually stand for the moderate majority that actually populates the country.
I personally am not for big government, nor the entitlements that so many people think they deserve. Hard work should be rewarded. laziness should not garner any support. I think my views actually fall within bounds of what most Americans believe. I am not a republican, nor a democrat. i wouldnt want to associate myself with either of them because they BOTH SUCK.
Unfortunately, Obama is too smart for anyone in the RepublicanT party to deal with. He’s actually better looking than Sarah Palin and that says a lot when a man is better looking than a woman. He’s got brain, heart and charism, the thinks Palin lacks.
@mark,
Interesting. I don’t like what Republicans are… I like what they claim to be… but I’m not that gullible. But, if you don’t think Democrats exist to promote the rich, think of this: Who benefits most from universal health care? You have a captive citizenship that is legally forced to buy a product… Do you honestly think that benefits anyone but the insurance companies???
@Sean, Agreed. We Americans would do well to listen to those whose geographical distance affords them a broader and circumspect perspective on our country. As much as I am still loathe to admit it much of our founding father’s ideas and inspiration came from French philosophers and advisers.
Steve – my friend’s 6 year old will soon be covered by insurance for the first time in her life (pre-existing condition since before she was 1), and will likely get the treatments she needs. I think that she might just be benefiting from health care.
Currently there are about 1,000 oil rigs sitting idle in North America. When the price goes up, they start some up, and then when the price goes down they shut them down. Letting them drill more wells will not change this behavior.
The oil well currently leaking in the Gulf was intended to get capped until some day in the future when they needed it, likely several years from now.
These guys keep count of how many rigs are running and how many are shut down in any given week. They have been doing it for decades, as they sell supplies to oil and gas drilling companies.
Please learn to spell and use proper grammar before criticizing someone SuperMenace. Thanks :)
Nice how you have a Lollar ad on this page. Isn’t he a Palin supporter? He is running against Hoyer for Congress on the Republican ticket.
One of the best comments ever.
they can be hysterically wrong at times. plenty of palin supporters hang out here. they seem to feel a need to defend her constantly. so maybe google isn’t all that off base. who knows.
that was a very insightful comment, i applaud you. (sarcasm)
I’ll agree with you on the fact that a majority of both parties voted for J. H. Res 114 and will fully admit that people in both parties got completely wrapped up in the moment and gave support for Bush’s war plans while loosing the ability to think clearly (this happened to most Americans at the time). But Congress does not have the power to allow Bush to do anything with the military and Bush certainly did not ask permission. As Commander and Chief of the Army, Navy and all state and local militias the President can send any damn amount of people to any damn place to kill and be killed any damn time he wants. All congress can do is send him money to support the troops if they choose to. But if congress denies the money the President can still send people to fight–whether that means they kill with bare hands and eat the dead or just become target practice for the other side is totally up to him. The President alone gets to chose what the people in the military do and when they get to stop doing as well. In that respect joining (or being drafted into) the military is by default becoming a servant of the President and President alone. He owns your ass.
P.S. The congress also gets to decide whether or not the President gets to assert complete control over the civilian population as well. They would do this by declaring war and that is why they haven’t officially declared war since WWII. Also, if they do declare war there is no clear way to know how the congress would regain those powers form the president after giving them away. Just a couple of the many holes the founding fathers forgot to fill.
Proper grammar and spelling (or perhaps lack of computer generated typing errors) is nice but it has never been a prerequisite for, or a disqualification of, a well reasoned thought. As long as you can understand what the idea is it should be evaluated on its own merits. If proper grammar was a requirement before one could give criticism the USA would have had a period of unprecedented Presidential silence form January 20, 2001 to January 20, 2009 and Ms. Palin would probably have much less to say as well.
good thanks yarrak ye.