I, for one, think that the nation's Republican-identified voters have a magnificent plan:
Coming off a shellacking at the polls in November, the plurality of GOP voters (43%) say their party has been too moderate over the past eight years, and 55% think it should become more like Alaska Governor Sarah Palin in the future, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. Just 24% think failed presidential candidate John McCain is the best future model for the party, and 10% are undecided.
Uh-huh. See this chart of the 2008 presidential tracking polls?
See the part where John McCain peaks in early September and begins dropping back down into the low forties? The beginning of that slide occurs within a couple days of Sarah Palin's first unscripted TV interview, the "In what way, Charlie?" interview with ABC's Charles Gibson. The slide in Palin's personal favorability ratings is documented, among other places, here and here. There is no evidence whatsoever that Palin helped the GOP ticket among any group except the conservative evangelicals who weren't going to vote for a Democrat anyway, and while I guess the case can be made that Palin helped turn out ultra-conservative voters who were otherwise sketchy on the prospect of voting for McCain, that still left the Republicans nearly 10 million votes short of retaining the White House, didn't it?
But this is the person that Republicans say their party should be more like. Hey, good luck with that. I was figuring on working for Barack Obama's re-election campaign in 2012, but if the GOP is that determined to become more Palin-like, maybe I can just take a two-month-long vacation in September and October instead. (Season-long Georgia road trip? I think you hear me knockin', and I think I'm comin' in.)
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