Sarah Palin rises in polls as Obama slips, new surveys show

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR: Sarah Palin rises in polls as Obama slips, new surveys show

President Obama’s job approval rating has hit a new low, even as Sarah Palin’s popularity appears to be on the rebound, new polls show.

The latest USA Today/Gallup Poll puts Mr. Obama’s job approval rating at 47 percent, a new low for his 10-month administration. His job approval ratings rose briefly after last week’s announcement of a new policy in Afghanistan but then fell back in Dec. 4-6 polling, Gallup said.

Gallup reported finding significant opposition both to Obama’s policies on healthcare reform and on Afghanistan.

Strong partisan feelings

The partisan split is deep and wide in Obama’s approval ratings. Fourteen percent of Republicans approve of Obama’s performance, versus 42 percent of independents and 83 percent of Democrats, Gallup found. Since November, when the president’s approval rating was 53 percent, his poll numbers have fallen three percentage points among Democrats, seven points among independents, and four points among Republicans, Gallup said.

As for Sarah Palin, the 2008 Republican vice-presidential candidate, 46 percent of Americans have a favorable view of her and 46 percent have an unfavorable view, according to a new poll by CNN/Opinion Research Corp. Those figures represent progress for Ms. Palin: When she resigned as Alaska’s governor in July, her favorability rating in CNN’s poll dropped to 39 percent.

The partisan divide in Palin’s favorability ratings is sharp. Among Republicans, 8 in 10 have a favorable view of Palin, who is now drawing large crowds as she tours the US selling her book “Going Rogue: An American Life.” But more than 7 in 10 Democrats hold negative views of Palin. Independents are evenly divided on her, CNN found.

Palin’s appeal to men

“John McCain put Palin on his ticket in 2008 to appeal to female voters, but it looks like men are a natural constituency for her,” CNN polling director Keating Holland said in a statement. According to the poll, 51 percent of men see Palin in a positive light, whereas a nearly equal number of women view her negatively.
According to Mr. Holland, “even within GOP circles, Republican men like Palin more than Republican women.”

The CNN poll was conducted Dec. 2-3 with 1,041 adult Americans contacted by phone. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. The Gallup poll was conducted Dec. 4-6 with 1,529 adults and also has a 3-percentage-point margin of error.