From the latest ABC News/WaPo poll:
While top-of-the-ticket rivals John McCain and Barack Obama both remain broadly popular heading into their Election Day showdown, public perceptions of Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin have fallen dramatically since she emerged on the national political scene at the GOP convention.
A majority of likely voters in a new Washington Post-ABC News national poll now have unfavorable views of the Alaska governor, most still doubt her presidential qualifications and there is an even split on whether she “gets it,” a perception that had been a key component of her initial appeal.
Palin’s addition to the GOP ticket initially helped McCain narrow the gap with Obama on the question of which presidential hopeful “better understands the problems of people like you,” but at 18 percentage points, the Democrat’s margin on that question is now as big as it has been all fall. Nor has Palin attracted female voters to McCain, as his campaign had hoped.
Obama is up by a large margin among women, 57 to 41 percent in the new Post-ABC tracking poll. And the senator from Illinois just about ties McCain among white women — 48 percent back Obama, 49 percent McCain — a group George W. Bush won by 11 points four years ago and one that had shifted significantly toward the GOP this year in the wake of the Palin pick.
(…)
In polling conducted Wednesday and Thursday evenings, following the disclosure that the Republican National Committee used political funds to help Palin assemble a wardrobe for the campaign, 51 percent said they had a negative impression of her. Fewer, 46 percent said they had a favorable view. That marks a stark turnaround from early September, when 59 percent of likely voters held positive opinions.
The declines in Palin’s ratings have been even more substantial among the very voters Republicans aimed to woo. The percentage of white women viewing her favorably dropped 21 points since early September, among independent women it fell 24 points.
More broadly, the intensity of negative feelings about Palin are also notable: 40 percent of voters have “strongly unfavorable” views, more than double the post-convention number. Nearly half of independent women now see her in a very negative light, a nearly three-fold increase.
These are the kind of “first impression” views of a candidate that will be hard to reverse over time, even four years from now. Dan Quayle was never able to get past the initial negative impression he made on the public — although he was a blessing for Bush 41 compared to the impact Palin is having on the McCain Campaign — and his subsequent effort to put together a run for the White House were pretty much over before they began.
I suspect that the same thing will happen to Sarah Palin.
