Are Americans really seeing through the Sarah Palin facade? I hope so. She is a female George Bush. A dumbass squared. She is making plenty of coin with her books and TV show. Good for her. But, God help us if she ever became President.
November 12, 2010
At 52%, Palin’s Unfavorable Score Hits a New High
Americans remain split in their reactions to Tea Party movement
PRINCETON, NJ — More than half of Americans, 52%, now view Sarah Palin unfavorably, the highest percentage holding a negative opinion of the former Alaska governor in Gallup polling since Sen. John McCain tapped her as the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee. Her 40% favorable rating ties her lowest favorable score, recorded just over a year ago.
The latest results come from a Nov. 4-7 Gallup poll, conducted shortly after the midterm elections delivered some big wins as well as losses for Tea Party movement candidates Palin had actively campaigned for in the past year.
Palin’s image has consistently tilted negative since July 2009, and was nearly as negative in October 2009 as it is today. Public views on her were also more negative than positive just before the 2008 election, in which President Obama handily defeated the Republican ticket. By contrast, Americans’ initial reactions to Palin after her debut at the Republican National Convention that year were mostly favorable.
Now that the 2010 midterms are over, the big question swirling around Palin is whether she will run for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination. Given her high name recognition and broad popularity among Republicans, 80% of whom now view her favorably, she is clearly in a strong position to seek it. However, her negative image among the other party groups — 81% of Democrats and 53% of independents view her unfavorably, while fewer than 4 in 10 view her favorably — casts some doubt on her viability in the general election.
After Midterms, More Americans Take a Stance on the Tea Party
Although Palin is strongly associated with the national Tea Party movement, her decline in favorability is not mirrored in the post-election support Gallup finds for the Tea Party.
About a third of Americans, 32%, now consider themselves to be Tea Party supporters, up slightly from the 26% saying this before the election, and one percentage point higher than the previous high on this measure. At the same time, 30% of Americans consider themselves opponents of the movement, tying the prior high.
Nearly two-thirds of Republicans, 65%, call themselves supporters of the Tea Party movement in the latest poll, while 57% of Democrats are opponents of it. Independents are about evenly divided: 30% call themselves supporters and 25% say they are opponents.
Bottom Line
At the close of an eventful midterm election season that focused heavily on the Tea Party message and candidates, Americans remain broadly divided in their reactions to the Tea Party movement, while the majority now hold a negative image of Palin, one of the movement’s most visible proponents. In the process, Palin maintained her already-positive image with Republicans while losing ground with independents and remaining widely unpopular with Democrats. The national Tea Party movement itself is also relatively polarizing, with about equal percentages of Americans calling themselves supporters and opponents.
For results based on the total sample of national adults, one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum margin of sampling error is ±4 percentage points.
Interviews are conducted with respondents on landline telephones (for respondents with a landline telephone) and cellular phones (for respondents who are cell phone-only). Each sample includes a minimum quota of 150 cell phone-only respondents and 850 landline respondents, with additional minimum quotas among landline respondents for gender within region. Landline respondents are chosen at random within each household on the basis of which member had the most recent birthday.
Samples are weighted by gender, age, race, education, region, and phone lines. Demographic weighting targets are based on the March 2009 Current Population Survey figures for the aged 18 and older non-institutionalized population living in continental U.S. telephone households. All reported margins of sampling error include the computed design effects for weighting and sample design.
In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.
Kill Bill says:
It grates on my minds eye like volcanic ash.
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13th November 2010 at 10:38 pm
Kill Bill says:
~ Each sample includes a minimum quota of 150 cell phone-only respondents and 850 landline respondents, ~
Landlines? WTF is that?. The only people with landlines nowdays are those country folk who dont like the governement revenuers unlike us who adore government.
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13th November 2010 at 10:47 pm
Yojimbo says:
I wanted to share a minor success. I live in Boston, and one of the biggest AM talk radio shows is the Howie Carr show on WRKO during the evening commute. Friday it was hosted by Colonel David Hunt, and the issue was the Death Penalty, and whether it should be reinstated in NH and introduced in MA. This was because of a heinous murder in NH that was being tried in court.
Anyway, most people were calling and saying they were for or against the death penalty, etc, etc.
I called and got on and said “I have a novel concept. I think that some white collar crime should receive the death penalty, and the first place we should start are the heads of the Too Big To Fail Banks that perpetrated the mortgage fraud on this country!”
Colonel Hunt said “But wait, why kill them, we haven’t seen a single prosecution yet.” I said, “And when will we?” He said “I don’t know”.
I said, “Colonel Hunt, what happened to the Rule of Law in this country?”
And he said with truthful resignation “The rich are not subject to the rule of law and never will be…”
I was blown away by his reply. People in MA, NH, VT, and RI got to hear it.
So, I did my part getting to the people who do not frequent sites like this one.
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13th November 2010 at 11:05 pm
Administrator says:
Yojimbo
They are now tracking your every move. A predator drone circles your house. A Dept of Homeland Security van follows you.
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13th November 2010 at 8:26 am
ragman says:
Palin, Gingrich, Rove, &tc. Same recycled crap that helped get us where we are today. If the pubbies put some recycled neocon warmonger up in ’12, I swear I’ll write in RE for pres.
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13th November 2010 at 8:44 am
StuckInNJ says:
Jim, you’re just gonna LUV Sarah’s new reality show!!!!
I know you will watch (and enjoy) every damn minute of it. Admit it!
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13th November 2010 at 10:31 am
Administrator says:
Stuck
Is the show called Jackass or Dumbass?
As long as she stays on TV and out of the White House, I’ll be happy.
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13th November 2010 at 11:42 am
Kill Bill says:
Its a perfect match as reality shows arent actually realistic. Soon Sarah will have a horse ranch in california or some pig farm in Texas and running for the oval. Oh. Wait.
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13th November 2010 at 12:22 pm
Smokey says:
With the rack that Sarah Palin has, exactly when did it start making a shit whether or not she has any brains?
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13th November 2010 at 12:53 pm
Administrator says:
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13th November 2010 at 1:12 pm
Administrator says:
Smokey
What are your requirements for President?
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13th November 2010 at 1:20 pm
Smokey says:
The ideal candidate will have a rack like Palin, a face like Elisha Cuthbert, an ass like Marisa Tomei, and give head like Minica Lewinski. A hot babe should be making all executive decisions from here on.
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13th November 2010 at 1:56 pm
Smokey says:
sic—Monica
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13th November 2010 at 1:57 pm
Administrator says:
Smokey
She’d give new meaning to the term Head of State.
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13th November 2010 at 3:45 pm
Opinionated Bloviator says:
Palin would make an awesome president. With gold at ~$4000 and silver hitting $100 I will be able to retire on my disaster capitalism fund and move back to my farm in NZ just before the civil wars and pogroms start in the United States Of Argentina. In the meantime I have put my faith in the teleprompter in chief – Hopey McChange. Economic collapse – change you are gettign real soon…
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13th November 2010 at 9:33 am