A new Gallup Poll makes clear that Sarah Palin’s appeal is pretty much limited to Republicans:
PRINCETON, NJ — Just 45% of Americans would like to see Sarah Palin become a major national political figure for many years to come, while a slight majority of 52% say they would not. These sentiments are sharply divided along partisan political lines.
Over three-quarters of Republicans would like to see the former vice-presidential nominee and current governor of Alaska become a major national political figure in the years ahead, in sharp contrast to the 43% of independents and 20% of Democrats who share that attitude.
Palin has been much in evidence since the Republican ticket’s defeat on Election Day, appearing in interviews on NBC’s “Today” show, Fox News, and CNN. Palin is also slated to give a major address to the Republican Governors Association meetings in Miami Thursday, followed by a press conference.
Palin’s post-election media appearances certainly fuel speculation that she is interested in playing a major role on the national political scene in the years ahead, perhaps by running for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012 or 2016, or for the U.S. Senate from Alaska. The data reviewed above, from the Nov. 7-9 USA Today/Gallup poll, suggest that she has a way to go to convince the average American that her presence would be a positive addition to the crowded political landscape.
That becomes even more apparent when you look at Palin’s favorable/unfavorable numbers, which are similarly skewed along partisan lines:
In the same weekend poll, Palin’s favorable ratings had climbed to the point where they were equal to her unfavorable ratings, a slightly more positive reaction than was generated in the final Gallup Poll conducted before the election.
Gallup’s initial read on Palin’s image — taken on Aug. 29, the day John McCain announced that he was selecting her as his running mate — showed that more than 7 out of 10 Americans didn’t know enough about her to have an opinion of her, but among the few who did, she had a 3-to-1 positive-to-negative ratio. She continued to be rated more positively than negatively after the Republican National Convention and her well-regarded acceptance speech, but after a series of widely panned interviews with network news anchors, her unfavorables climbed, and, by the time of the election, more Americans viewed her unfavorably than favorably.
(…)
Her favorable ratings by party group are sharply divided, reflecting the same basic pattern evident in reactions to the idea of her becoming a national political figure.
It will be interesting to see if Palin’s week-long media offensive has any impact on these numbers.
