John McCain's biggest liability: Sarah Palin

[forestal]

heh, great choice you made there, Maverick!

Palin’s drag on the ticket?
That does appear to be the case with McCain’s running mate, Sarah Palin. Fifty-five percent of respondents say she’s not qualified to serve as president if the need arises, up five points from the previous 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.

[PsyOps (Premo)]

Speaking of liabilities... did you hear what Biden said today?

[MMDad]

Originally Posted by forestal

she’s not qualified to serve as president if the need arises,

Excellent strategy there waterbrain! Her lack of executive experience will definitely win the election.... unless, of course, your candidate has even less experience AND his VP nominee is going around pointing that out.

[Tilted (Premo)]

Originally Posted by forestal

Palin’s drag on the ticket?

That does appear to be the case with McCain’s running mate, Sarah Palin. Fifty-five percent of respondents say she’s not qualified to serve as president if the need arises, up five points from the previous 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.

The interpretation of these polls, suggested by the bolded headline, is wrong. McCain may lose the election, but it certainly won't be because of his selection of Palin. That was probably the best move, from a political perspective, that he has made during this campaign. National elections are all about turnout, and McCain's primary weakness is the perception by many republicans that he's too moderate. Palin helps immensely in that regard. Palin fires up his base and gives them something to be passionate about. Win or lose, his results will be better because of her selection.

That poll doesn't demonstate that Palin is a 'drag on the ticket'. One of the problems with polls, in specific, and data sets, in general, is that it takes a certain degree of insight to understand what the data is really telling you. Often casual or biased observers of the raw data completely misunderstand the meaning of the information. In the absence of the ability or inclination to anaylze it, this kind of data can be very misleading.

I can guarantee that almost all of the people who indicated their belief that she is not qualified to serve as president, are people who were going to vote against McCain anyway. Therefore, that belief on their part doesn't hurt the McCain-Palin ticket in the least.

The second part of the data about the increase in people holding a negative opinion of her is a predictable phenomena. When we first heard about her, most people, especially Obama supporters who would be inclined to see her negatively, knew little about her. Because of that, they had little on which to base a negative opinion of her. Although they knew they didn't want to like her, they didn't feel justified indicating that they didn't like her yet, because it would obviously have just been partisan bias with no basis to support it. Now that there is more information out there and she has been discussed ad nauseum, they can feel justified expressing their negative opinions of her.

As for the last part, that the top concern about McCain's candidacy is her lack of qualification to serve as President, the reason for that is that a large portion of those that were already opposed to McCain are now selecting that option. That's because it's the most convenient and popular concern, and it's the one that they can most easily convince themselves is legitimate. The truth is that very few people whose vote hasn't already been decided would have that particular concern - especially considering that Palin is more qualified than anyone else on either ticket, if by that you mean has experience relevant to being an executive. If someone was sincerely making a decison based on experience that was pertinant to the presidency, there is little chance that they would opt for the Obama-Biden ticket over the McCain-Palin ticket.

The bottom line is that these kinds of polls are usually meaningless. These polls, in specific, certainly don't not mean what the author of the snippet you quoted posits that they mean.

[Bavarian]

Palin is the only candidate of the four with executive experience, she is better fit for Presidency than Obama. The MSM is trying to use selective polls to discourage Republican vote. If all McCain supporters ignore this and vote, we will have McCain for President and Bailey for Representative. Don't listen to the MSM who are in the tank for Obama.

[Midnightrider]

Originally Posted by Bavarian

Palin is the only candidate of the four with executive experience, she is better fit for Presidency than Obama. The MSM is trying to use selective polls to discourage Republican vote. If all McCain supporters ignore this and vote, we will have McCain for President and Bailey for Representative. Don't listen to the MSM who are in the tank for Obama.

the daily show spoofed her "executive experience" the other day.
it was pretty funny, although i dont see any problem with her as a VP candidate experience wise, it was pretty funny when they talked to the current mayor of wasila.
if you want to watch :
YouTube - Jon Stewart of the Daily Show Roasts Mayor of Wasilla Alaska

i'll warn you that you have to sit through the guy moving the camera as he recorded it from tv, and you hear him laughing occasionally.


as obviously biased as the piece was, if was pretty damn funny.

[chernmax]

Originally Posted by PsyOps

Speaking of liabilities... did you hear what Biden said today?

And continuing to hear!!!

Joe always seems to be in that Timeout chair in the corner...

[Midnightrider]

Originally Posted by chernmax

And continuing to hear!!!

Joe always seems to be in that Timeout chair in the corner...

if you are a self important grade A super douche its really hard to not look stupid some of the time. I am really surprised it isn't happening more.

[Highlander]

Originally Posted by Bavarian

Palin is the only candidate of the four with executive experience, she is better fit for Presidency than Obama. The MSM is trying to use selective polls to discourage Republican vote. If all McCain supporters ignore this and vote, we will have McCain for President and Bailey for Representative. Don't listen to the MSM who are in the tank for Obama.

I took some poll last week were 70 some percent of people thought she could do the job of the president. The media is sickening. They are driving this election. I had someone at work tell me he was voting for Obama because he wanted change. I couldn't stop laughing. Everything is Bush's fault and the dems are going to make things so much better.

[ImnoMensa]

Originally Posted by Midnightrider

the daily show spoofed her "executive experience" the other day.
it was pretty funny, although i dont see any problem with her as a VP candidate experience wise, it was pretty funny when they talked to the current mayor of wasila.
if you want to watch :
YouTube - Jon Stewart of the Daily Show Roasts Mayor of Wasilla Alaska

i'll warn you that you have to sit through the guy moving the camera as he recorded it from tv, and you hear him laughing occasionally.


as obviously biased as the piece was, if was pretty damn funny.

Now we know where you get your brilliant Democrat ideas. You watch the Daily show. Yes it is certainly is a DNC owned and operated site.