Polls Show Palin Is Starting to Drag Down McCain

Polls Show Palin Is Starting to Drag Down McCain
http://www.alternet.org/election08/99424/
The intense focus to reveal the truth about Sarah Palin's credentials
has taken its toll on her numbers.
No one can doubt that McCain's choice of Palin rejuvenated a listless,
dying campaign. She excited the Theocon Right and brought them home,
and being a fresh new face with an interesting bio, she captivated the
nation's attention. Her initial numbers were sky high, and she packed
them in for McCain. Suddenly, what had been a large Obama post-DNCC
bounce turned on a dime, and Palin delivered a huge surge for her
ticket.


Bloggers and tradmed reporters took a hard look at Sarah Palin and
began raking her over the coals for myriad transgressions. She is a
liar with theocratic tendencies, sports an intellect that makes Bush
look like a Mensa member, and features an obvious fondness for Cheney-
style abuses of power. And that's not even the worst of it.


But then the worriers began to question, "Why are we focusing on
Palin? McCain is getting a pass! We're tilting at windmills, since
she's too popular to damage!" We were told to stop talking altogether
about Palin, as if ignoring her would remove the spell she had cast on
America. This Andrew Sullivan post must've been emailed to me two
dozen times by panicked worrywarts. A few bad polls, and people seemed
to be losing their minds and sense.


But we continued to focus on Palin. Republicans were busy trying to
build a positive narrative about Palin -- the "hockey mom" who was so
folksy she could "field dress a moose" and had "said no to the Bridge
to Nowhere and other government waste" and was overflowing with "small
town values." McCain had shot up in the polls because of Palin. Common
sense dictated it would be hard to knock him back down as long as she
consolidated her popularity. So we set out to build the negative
narratives about Palin. This is stuff straight out of Taking on the
System. I have a whole chapter on it, in fact.


So we focused heavily on Palin, and make no mistake, it's exactly that
intense focus that has taken its toll on her numbers:

Approve Disapprove No Opinion


9/11: 52 35 13 +17
9/12: 51 37 12 +14
9/13: 49 40 11 +9
9/14: 47 42 11 +5
9/15: 47 43 10 +4
9/16: 45 44 11 +1
9/17: 44 45 11 -1
9/18: 42 46 11 -4



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