These new Palin poll numbers indicate it's almost head-in-the-oven-time.
A new USA Today/Gallup poll (post resignation presser-by-the-lake) shows a whopping 71% of Republicans polled say they would vote for Palin in 2012! Also scary, 51% of Independents polled say they would not vote for her. For President! Even now! I swear, I despair.
I have watched Fox News online here and there since her resignation; it so interesting to try to figure out the minds of her supporters like Matalin, Coulter, Kristol, et.al. Ross Douthat's piece
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/06/opinion/06ross.html?_r=2&partner=rss&emc=rss
about Palin bemoaning the fact that "democracy can't beat out meritocracy" (elitism) sent chills up my spine. Thousands of people have refuted it, so I won't try here. But what has sickened me in the debates over her qualifications to be President are the people who claim she is smart. On cable news, and indeed in the town I live, it keeps occurring to me that it is true: a stupid person cannot tell if another person is smart or not. The corollary is that they can't tell if a another person is ignorant or not, either. There are simply no reference points for them to know which things should be known, which don't matter, and which answers or facts are true, or at least close to the truth.
Which President was it who allegedly "demystified the Presidency"? And what did it mean? That there is such a large number of Americans who might believe that "anyone can grow up to be President" has appeal, and the ring of truth. But that "just anyone can be President" if we might like their looks, or mavericky-ness, or sound and talk like us is a frightening trend.
Talk me down at will here...
I confess that when I first read this, I "saw" what I wanted to see -- that 71% of polled Republicans said they would NOT vote for Sarah Palin.
Now I'm just trying to think of something to say that will both talk you down and lower my blood pressure.
Deep breath...OK:
The good news is that --
21 % of Republicans are sure they will not vote for her; that's a comfort.
Surely that 21% number of just say no to Sarah will increase over time as Sarah continues to make incoherent speeches?
Even if this ratio pertained in the next election, it was only Republicans who were polled, so that if one were to add 100% of Democrats who will not vote for her to 21% of Republicans who will not vote for her, even if she were to win the Republican nomination, she cannot win the election.
Feel any better?
July 8, 2009 1:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
I've never jumped on the Palin-is-a-lightweight bandwagon. If we go into the next election with 10%+ unemployment, zombie banks, sky-rocketing debt, all of which is a distinct posibility whatever Obama tries to do, then there is a lot to be worried about. This woman was born to channel mindless rage!
July 8, 2009 1:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
You know what? As terrifying the prospect, your scenario is plausible.
July 8, 2009 4:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
I wonder whether the percentage of Republicans supporting Palin are the same people who think that Bush was a good President?
Why is it that people who would insist that a mechanic know something think you can stick any decent person in the White House and it doesn't matter if they know anything or not?
July 8, 2009 4:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
Was it FDR who said, "the best argument against democracy is spending ten minutes with the average voter"?
AJM: ain't so sure from where i sit that palin is even "decent"...too many lies out of that one's mouth to qualify for that, i think.
WW: thanks for the attempt to rap me down, but these numbers still give me the willies! Yes, there is a lot of time before the next election, but this poll even at this point in time speaks volumes about the extent of ignorance, self-delusion, barely controlled rage, and utter lack of understanding of what it must take to be President among a huge slice of american voters.. Most of us are smart enough to know that WE could not do the job well, thank goodness.
Just imagine sarah with the nuclear launch codes; hell, imagine john mc cain with the launch codes! ("We are all georgians, iranians, fill in the blank...today.")
July 8, 2009 4:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
Maybe those numbers will shift when they find out she is still lying.
http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/republican-party/key-reason-palin-gave-for-quitting-appears-to-be-false/
July 8, 2009 5:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
71% of Republicans voted for John McCain; substantially more in fact. And he lost. So what's your point?
July 8, 2009 5:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
These numbers reveal little. What are here standings compared to other GOP potential candidates? How does she compare by the numbers with Huckabee or Mittens? How about Newt?
She is polling high in spite of July 3rd's debacle because competition is minimal and the party is increasingly regional and obstructionist. My guess is that these numbers are still somewhat strong right now because most of the GOP is hopeful that she can pull it all together. Her brand of politics and feminism is a potential weakness in Democratic identity politics. If she can somehow manage the light and shade of mainstream politics, I have no doubt that her biography combined with her wattage would make her a force. But he has displayed zero talent in the mechanics of politics. Ronald Reagan played the game for decades. He was a health insurance lobbyist/spokesman, head of a union, governor of a complicated and powerful state, and he performed many speaking engagements and burnished his credentials over several years.
In other words, by the time Ronald Reagan made his move at the Presidency, he had performed the hard work necessary to bring it all together. Palin does not have this work ethic. Nor is she a wunderkind like Obama. She has a raw energy and appeals to disaffected rural voters, but is lacking in other avenues.
She needs to spend the next two years speaking to industries, cutting ribbons, and developing a heartland schtick that ties into rural populism. She needs to stay away from the media except as a messenger for her ideas. And, beyond that, she needs to develop a slightly more sophisticated conservative feminism that (while distasteful to me) can drive a wedge between third and fourth wave feminists and attract women to conservatism as a safety net against moral decay and foreign invasion.
In other words, the GOP could use a charismatic female like Palin... but I think Palin is a beta model, a prototype to the future Stepford Dictatress.
July 8, 2009 8:21 PM | Reply | Permalink