Palin Popularity Not Improving

While Sarah Palin is a queen to the teabaggers in the Republican Party, it has been known for quite a while that she is very unpopular outside of that group.   I think she thought her recent television series showing her posing as someone who enjoys the outdoors and hunting and fishing would help to increase her popularity.   But it looks like that simply hasn't happened.

Her initial show had some pretty good ratings -- about 5 million viewers.   But that didn't last long.   The viewership dropped by 40% in the second week and has been falling ever since, although there was a small bump in viewership when Kate Gosselin and her brood were on the show.   Evidently people wanted to see the train wreck that would happen when these two dim-witted women clashed.

But the show doesn't seem to have helped Palin with her favorability ratings among American voters.   A new survey by Public Policy Polling  shows she still has very high unfavorability ratings, and that is especially true in her home state of Alaska (where people know her the best).   Of the general population in Alaska, only 33% give her a favorable rating while 58% rate her unfavorably.

It's not surprise that Alaska Democrats don't have a good opinion of Palin, but it seems that she's also very unpopular with Alaska independents -- only 25% give her a favorable rating compared to 65% who give her an unfavorable rating.   The only group giving her a favorable rating in Alaska is Republicans, and even there it's only a 60% favorable rating (and a 30% unfavorable rating).   It looks like Alaskans have had their fill of the quitter from Wasilla.

But it isn't just Alaskans who have a poor opinion of Palin.   Public Policy Polling has recently polled in nine other states and her numbers are pretty bad in all of those also.   Here are the unfavorable numbers for those states (with favorable rating in parentheses):

Montana...............50% (44%)
Ohio...............52% (37%)
North Carolina...............57% (36%)
Florida...............57% (36%)
Virginia...............58% (35%)
Wisconsin...............58% (35%)
Minnesota...............60% (35%)
Michigan...............60% (34%)
Massachusetts...............68% (27%)

Palin may have a chance in the Republican primary where the teabaggers rule the party in many states, but unless she can drastically improve those numbers she will not have a chance in the general election.   Not only has the television show failed to improve her numbers, but she has not taken the opportunity to make herself more knowledgeable about national and world issues (a serious disappointment for many Republicans).

She seems to think she can be successful with nothing more than country witticisms and a butchering of the English language.   That did work for George Bush, but after his disastrous presidency, I think the voters are expecting a little more now.