Friday, January 16, 2009

Palin's approval ratings inch up; McCain's way higher

Fox News poll (pdf):

Favorable Ratings:

John McCain: 64% fav; 29% unfav
Sarah Palin: 49% fav; 40% unfav

For context, Sarah Palin gets the same fav rating that George W gets. But both of them do much better than Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro.

Let's break their numbers down further:

a) Among Republicans, Palin's Fav at 85%-10%
b) Among Democrats, Palin's Fav at 24%-63%
c) Among independents, Palin's Fav at 46%-41%

Those independent numbers don't look bad, until you consider George W's independent Favs are at 44%-45%.

Further, having net favorables with independents doesn't mean you'll win that group. John McCain's net favorables among I's are 65%-25%, and before the election 56%-40%. The question is, how high are your opponent's net favorables?

Obama's net fav's among independents before the election was +21; McCain's +16.

Ball game.

Over at RedState, Josh Painter posts "Palin approval rating rebounding" and notes with optimism:

The number slipped to 45% after two months of hard campaigning in which the governor, in the traditional role of a vice presidential candidate, frequently attacked the candidates on the opposing ticket. But now her spproval (sic) rating appears to be on the upswing.

On the upswing by 4 pts, overall. Can you call that an upswing or random error? And further, that's not a very big upswing. John McCain's overall upswing since the election is +8. Twice Sarah Palin's. That's common in politics. The election ends. The losers experience gains. How else to explain the rapturous accolades for Hillary Clinton as Sec of State?

So I wouldn't make too much of this. Even if Red State does.

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