Apparently for many Americans who are not avid listeners of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck or Tea Party movement members to see, read or listen to Sarah Palin is apparently not to love her. According to Gallup her unfavorable ratings are at an all time high:
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 graph hits home the key fact here: that Palin is not expanding her coalition or appeal but talking to her applauding followers who love her Facebook and Twitter entries and her speeches:
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.
Her lack of appeal beyond her Republican base (mostly Tea Party movement and members of the talk radio political culture, which isn’t surprising since Palin it could be argued is the first talk radio style national candidate whose main argument is sarcasm, snark and belittlement with an occasional sprinkling of actual ideas and proposed solutions) is immediately evident in this graph that shows her appeal in terms of party:
Gallup’s conclusions are similar to those expressed by some here at TMV:
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.
What does this mean?
If these numbers hold it means that if Palin is elected President she will be a President of the base, for the base and by the base and not be a President with the kind of “safety net” support that Presidents need if they are to succeed. She would be a President at least as polarizing as Richard Nixon, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush or Barack Obama. At least — and some could argue that given her 21st century talk radio culture political style even morseo.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.