Senator John McCain’s vice presidential pick is looking like a bigger mistake day by day. There is growing evidence that Governor Sarah Palin has become a drag on the flailing Republican ticket. The Republican nominee is already weighed down by the failures of the Bush administration and our deteriorating economy, but it’s looking more and more like Palin may be the final nail in the coffin.
The latest New York Times/CBS news national poll was conducted Saturday through Wednesday and surveyed 1,439 adults nationwide, including 1,308 registered voters. The margin of sampling error is +/-3. From the New York Times:
All told, 59 percent of voters surveyed said Ms. Palin was not prepared for the job, up nine percentage points since the beginning of the month. Nearly a third of voters polled said the vice-presidential selection would be a major factor influencing their vote for president, and those voters broadly favor Senator Barack Obama, the Democratic nominee.
And in a possible indication that the choice of Ms. Palin has hurt Mr. McCain’s image, voters said they had much more confidence in Mr. Obama to pick qualified people for his administration than they did in Mr. McCain.
(emphasis mine)
Oops! Now people know McCain will pick a rotten cabinet. It’s becoming clearer to the voters that incompetence will abound in a McCain administration, his primary concerns being to please and pander to his base and the people who will prop up what would undoubtedly be a disastrous presidency. The more we learn about Sarah Palin, the more uncomfortable the nation becomes with the prospect of seeing her become president. From ABC:
Embarrassing revelations about her costly campaign wardrobe and bloopers about the vice president’s job description are raising fresh fears that Sarah Palin is dragging down the Republican ticket.
New polls showed that seven weeks after Senator John McCain plucked the Alaska governor from political obscurity to be his running mate in the November 4 elections, Ms Palin is seen as an increasing liability for Republicans.
A liability? She’s a concrete block roped and tethered to McCain’s leg. The man is drowning. More than half of the country has finally come to the conclusion that she isn’t ready to be president, a frightening thought when you take McCain’s age and long-term health issues into account.
Fifty-five percent of respondents say she’s not qualified to serve as president if the need arises, up five points from the previous [NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll].
In addition, for the first time, more voters have a negative opinion of her than a positive one. In the survey, 47 percent view her negatively, versus 38 percent who see her in a positive light.
That’s a striking shift since McCain chose Palin as his running mate in early September, when she held a 47 to 27 percent positive rating.
Now, Palin’s qualifications to be president rank as voters’ top concern about McCain’s candidacy – ahead of continuing President Bush’s policies, enacting economic policies that only benefit the rich and keeping too high of a troop presence in Iraq.
[. . .]
Hart argues that voters have turned against Palin. The negative opinions of her have “reflected badly on McCain and essentially hurt the ticket dramatically.”
MSNBC (emphasis mine)
McCain is doing his best to back Palin up, but the rest of his party isn’t so sure. Looks like a lot of Democrats and Republicans have found something they can agree on: Palin is a walking catastrophe. Some of the most prominent members of McCain’s party are turning on him – all because he felt the need to pander to Hillary Clinton’s female supporters and the far Right wingnuts of his base.
Senator McCain has staunchly defended his running mate against the slew of attacks, stressing she will be a valuable asset in his campaign goal of ridding Washington of political corruption.
But even staunch Republicans remain unconvinced.
Ken Adelman, a Republican hawk who served in top diplomatic and defence posts for presidents Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, told the New Yorker magazine that Ms Palin’s choice for vice president made him switch sides and he is now supporting Senator Obama for president.
Former secretary of state Colin Powell, a Republican and military general who has also served as chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, on Sunday endorsed Obama and said of Ms Palin: “I don’t believe she is ready to be president of the United States, which is the job of the vice president.”
And one of former president George H.W. Bush’s speechwriters, Christopher Buckley, a prominent conservative, announced this month he was abandoning support for Senator McCain for many reasons, including “the Palin nomination. What on earth can he have been thinking?”
ABC (emphasis mine)
It’s pretty pitiful when this many people in your party are nervous, especially when some of those people endorsed you prior to your VP pick. From The Huffington Post:
A former Republican Secretary of State and one of John McCain’s most prominent supporters [Lawrence Eagleburger] offered a stunningly frank and remarkably bleak assessment of Sarah Palin’s capacity to handle the presidency should such a scenario arise.
[. . .]
“And I devoutly hope that [she] would never be tested,” he added for good measure — referring both to Palin’s policy dexterity and the idea of McCain not making it through his time in office.
(emphasis mine)
On the other hand, there’s our own vice presidential nominee Joe Biden. Turns out 75% of Americans believe he is qualified for the vice presidency, prepared to step into Barack Obama’s place if necessary.
While a majority viewed Ms. Palin as unqualified for the vice presidency, roughly three-quarters of voters saw Mr. Obama’s running mate, Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, as qualified for the job. The increase in the number of voters who said Ms. Palin was not prepared was driven almost entirely by Republicans and independents.
Over all, views of Ms. Palin were apparently shaped more by ideology and party than by gender. Ms. Palin was viewed as unprepared for the job by about 6 in 10 men and women alike. But 8 in 10 Democrats viewed her as unprepared, as well as more than 6 in 10 independents and 3 in 10 Republicans.
New York Times (emphasis mine)
And here’s the kicker: the damage Palin is doing to McCain’s chances in cold, hard statistics:
It confirmed the findings of an ABC/Washington Post poll released earlier this month which found that six in 10 voters saw Ms Palin, 44, as lacking the experience to be an effective president.
“A third are now less likely to vote for McCain because of her,” the Post added.
ABC (emphasis mine)
This is what you get, ladies and gentlemen. This is what happens when you sacrifice your principles for a shot at the big time. This is what happens when you pander to extremists. This is what happens when you forsake your honor.
The voters see through your crap, and you lose. That’s what happens.
32 comments