Thursday, April 08, 2010

PALIN: DUDES STILL DIG HER MORE

A new CBS poll tells us that Sarah Palin still has abysmally bad approval ratings with the public at large: 24% favorable, 38% unfavorable. ("Undecided" and "Haven't Heard Enough" total 37%.)

Regarding gender, we're told:

Men and women have similarly unfavorable views of Sarah Palin.

But that doesn't tell the whole story. According to the detailed results (PDF), here are Palin's numbers by gender:

Men: favorable 28%, unfavorable 36%
Women: favorable 21%, unfavorable 40%

So nearly twice as many women disapprove of her as approve of her. Among guys, the numbers are still quite negative, but a lot closer to even. And overall approval is noticeably higher among men.

I told you several times during the campaign that Palin's fan base skewed male; The New York Times noticed the same thing.

I realize the crowd for the Palin-Bachmann shindig yesterday was predominantly female, and the onstage rhetoric included invocations of Dem-bashing grrrl power. But overall, the numbers still suggest that the typical Palin fan is likely to be a right-wing guy for whom she's a fantasy avenger, while the women are much more likely to dislike her than like her.

I hope Republicans never figure this out. I hope they try to deploy her in close elections in an effort to steer women toward GOP candidates -- and gets their heads handed to them.

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