Polls Are Coming

A little bit more than half of all NAPP readers are very, very down on the choice of Sarah Palin as John McCain’s running mate. Certainly, for liberals and other critics of the McCain campaign, she is the gift that keeps on giving in terms of scandal and hot-button issues. The latest is a rumor about her own marital fidelity; is there any substantiation to it? I don’t know, of course, but apparently the story is about to be broken by the National Enquirer and it will be based in part on the records of divorce proceedings involving Todd Palin’s former business partner.

For the record, I see no reason why we should be surprised or concerned that a female politician had cheated on her husband — at least, we shouldn’t be any more surprised at that then we would be at news that a male politician had cheated on his wife. It’s embarassing and salacious, but by itself it has nothing to do with the person’s ability to hold public office. And it suggests hypocrisy in those individuals who hold themselves out as models of good moral behavior (as all politicians impliedly do).

But we had 37 votes. If you count my opinion — I think she was really intended to appeal to not-particularly-liberal former Hillary Clinton supporters and to the religious and socially-conservative right — that’s 20 out of 38, or not quite 53%, who disapprove of Palin.* National and statewide polls draw from thousands of respondents. And the real poll is the one that will be held in November.

Still, people are still talking about Sarah Palin and nothing else when it comes to politics. That is, I think, a net gain for the Republicans. Obama has got to start making some news himself soon or eventually people are going to hear about Sarah Palin for so long they’ll get confused and think she already is Vice-President. That’s a net loss for Obama. And let’s also not forget that it’s still eight weeks until the election, and world and national events are going to continue occurring in that time. A lot depends on the kinds of things that happen between now and then like, say, Russia annexing South Ossetia, or a nuclear power plant meltdown, or who knows what else.

* One of these days, I’ll have to discipline myself about parenthetical statements embedded within sentences. Not today, though.