POWIP Piece of Work In Progress

The Renaissance of Sarah Palin.

TV ratings for November 18, 2009; courtesy of the Drudge Report. (click to enlarge)

Sarah Palin sure seems to be gathering steam lately, and there’s strong evidence that the public is giving her a second look; perhaps the realization of Mr. Obama’s shortcomings is accentuating her positives more than any negatives that the lamestream media tries to keep the public’s attention focused on.  Efforts that have achieved a whole new level of transparent desperation lately, with MSNBC reporters attending Palin book signing events armed with talking points to challenge her many fans, and Chris “Tingle” Matthews obsessing about the “monochromatic” nature of ‘Cuda’s fans.  I guess Chris “Tingle” needed to find a new angle, since lately the race card is looking a bit dog-eared from overplaying it; attempting to use it against anyone opposing the President’s political agenda.
 

The evidence of this resurgence is manifold.  To begin with, her new book, “Going Rogue: An American Life”, sold 300,000 copies on the first day it was released!  I guess it won’t be so hard after all to reach the 400,000 copies sold break even point, eh?  And then there are the TV ratings that spike when she’s on interview programs.  Not only did her interview last night propel Hannity’s ratings past O’Reilly's usual high metric, but her recent appearance on Chewbacca’s Michelle Obama’s friend Thulsa Doom’s Oprah Winfrey’s program registered the largest audience that show has drawn in years!
 

But a real measure of the change in public perception of Palin is reflected in a recent Fox news poll where her favorables were found to be 47/42 (favorable/unfavorable opinion):

Despite being characterized by many as a divisive force in her party and the nation, Americans are much more likely to give Palin a positive rating (47 percent favorable) than another prominent female leader — Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (28 percent favorable). Moreover, about six in 10 Americans (61 percent) think Palin has been treated unfairly by the press, according to the latest Fox News poll…

Among self-identified Republicans in the survey, Palin gets the highest favorable ratings (70 percent) amid a group of other possible contenders for the GOP nomination, including Mike Huckabee (63 percent), Mitt Romney (60 percent) and Newt Gingrich (58 percent). Palin’s favorable score among all voters is 47 percent, up nine percentage points over last July’s reading of 38 percent…

President Obama recently stated that he “probably won’t” read Sarah Palin’s new book. But his possible opponent in the 2012 elections trails him in personal favorability by only seven points (54 percent to 47 percent). Among the critical segment of independent voters, they are virtually even (Obama at 50 percent; Palin at 49 percent).

That last part is especially topical and should concern the President, considering how his poll numbers are fading across the board.  Of course, there is the Rasmussen daily Presidential tracking poll and approval index, which today stand at 46% of respondents at least somewhat approving of Obama’s overall performance, and an approval index rating of -14.  And less those numbers be dismissed as wingnut fantasy, Quinnipiac reports an overall policy approval rating of 46%-although a higher number of respondents “like” the President, Gallup has him hovering around 50%, John Zogby has Obama’s popularity holding steady at 49% as does Public Policy Polling, and finishing off this round robin of popularity polling is Fox, who show the POTUS having the same favorability rating as Rasmussen-46%.

That’s a whole lot of “below 50%” going on…
 

What should be of larger concern to President Obama is the growing dissatisfaction with his performance among self identified “independents”; a 34/51 split (overall approval/disapproval).  Perhaps more troubling still is a Zogby poll which reports that independents think that the Bush administration was more transparent than the much heralded, celebrated, most Ethical!, Honest!, Brilliant!, Judicious!, and Transparent! Administration-EVAH!  And the Democrats as a party need to recognize that Obama’s coat-tails work in reverse also, as Rethugs! now lead in generic congressional balloting; an advantage that Republicans in the modern era have never enjoyed, not even in 1994 when they were swept in to power in the House of Representatives.
 

None of this data means that any electoral success  is “in the bag” for Sarah Palin, quite the opposite instead since the legacy media, and the fightin’ nutroots, will almost certainly strive to cement her public image as being a divisive figure primarily through the bitter, deranged, openly misogynistic, acrimonious arguments, and belittling attacks that figures such as Chris “Tingle”, Olbermann, Maddow and other “gatekeepers” of information will subject the public and Sarah Palin to.  And, wittingly or otherwise, there will be alleged conservatives “wizards of smart”, such as the Davids-Brooks and Frum, that will aid them in this endeavour by using what limited sway they have in Republican circles to  gainsay her at every opportunity; publicly supporting the elitist arguments that she is just a rube, hicktard, chillbilly that’s bad for the party in general and who will be unable to attract moderates.  It’s been more than 30 years since I’ve heard this kind of rhetoric; the same sorts of criticisms were leveled at Reagan, the only difference being the slur substitution of doddering-avuncular-doofus for rube-hicktard-chillbilly.  And that’s why it is so clear to me that the far left is reacting to what they rightly perceive as an existential threat to all the sway they’ve worked to regain; especially over the last 4 to 6 years. 
 

The far left Democrats fear that, just as with Reagan, Sarah Palin’s cheery optimism, can-do attitude, and dedication to the traditional American ideals of national exceptionalism and individualism will resonate in a way that the elitist notions of our “betters” deciding what’s good for us never will; and fear that combined with a charisma that far exceeds the media enabled “cool” of Obama, will make for an unstoppable juggernaut.  Indeed, based pretty much solely on her charisma and  personal appeal the public is willing to give her another serious look; a development that drives liberals in the legacy media, as well as a few conservatives, to resort to doing whatever it takes to eliminate her viability as a candidate.  This dedication to the destruction of her potential political career is revealed by the maniacal response by some journalists and commentators, such as Ana Marie Cox’s decision to not let a silly detail, you know, like actually reading the entire book get in the way of her panning of it; a suspicion some have about Rod Dreher as well.  Or consider that the Associated Press assigned 11 reporters to “fact check” Palin’s book; an astonishing development on it’s face when you realize that to this day they have assigned none to fact check either of Obama’s books-either now or when he was an unknown, un-vetted, candidate who essentially came out of nowhere.  As if this doesn’t reveal sufficient and unfair bias on it’s face, as Mark Steyn wryly observes, all this squad of muckrakers uncovered were 6 minor, inconsequential errors, and between them produced a 695 word story.
 

What none of the folks in any of these organizations realize is that they are actually helping Palin through their deranged efforts.  Just as during the 2008 campaign, the public can tell that many legacy media outlets, and of course the nutroot blogs, are biased against her; indeed, the Fox poll showed that 6 out of 10 respondents recognized this biased and agenda driven reportage.  Add to this the public’s perception of the legacy media’s liberal bias, and the President’s continued bungling, dithering, and dedication to his far left base and their agenda, and you have a perfect storm that could possibly result in Palin’s favorable perception by the public exceeding the President’s;  resulting in a monumental sense of delicious irony, in the literary sense, writ large as well as a generous helping of schadenfreude for the targets of the left’s coordinated political attacks.
 

All of their efforts might just aid in Sarah Palin’s resurgence and might just propel her solidly into history too; not the dustbin though, but the annals instead, as perhaps the first woman to be elected President of the United States.

UPDATE: Dan Riehl weighs in on Sarah Palin 2.0, noting that in the public's eye she has what amounts to a fresh slate and that what happened in the past is of less importance than what happens going forward.  Oh, and he also mentions perhaps her most deranged and obsessive critic-RawMuslglutes...

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