New NBC/WSJ Poll: Palin Favorables at 73% Among Repubs

Aaron Keyak — December 11, 2008 – 10:59 am | McCain | Polls Comments (0) Add a comment

According to the latest NBC/WSJ poll, "President-elect Barack Obama is enjoying a larger post-election honeymoon with the American public than his recent predecessors did." There are plenty of numbers to illustrate this point and some interesting numbers about how Republicans see Governor Sarah Palin.

67% say they’re pleased with Obama’s early appointments, 75% believe that the level of his involvement in making policy has been exactly right, and his fav/unfav rating is 67%-16%. By comparison, a month after their initial presidential victories, Bush’s rating was 48%-35% and Clinton’s was 60%-19%. These scores -- combined with the fact that nearly 80% believe Obama will face bigger challenges than other recent presidents have, and 90% who say the nation’s economy has gotten worse over the past 12 months -- seem to have given Obama some leeway with the American public.

That's impressive, but there's more. Remember when Obama said, "Hope in the face of difficulty, hope in the face of uncertainty... the bedrock of this nation, a belief in things not seen, a belief that there are better days ahead." Now that candidate Obama will soon be President Obama, the American people still believe that Obama will tangibly deliver on that promise.

• 80 percent say it’s likely he’ll improve American’s image around the world.
• 73 percent say it’s likely he’ll put the economy back on track.
• 70 percent say it’s likely that he’ll pull most U.S. troops out of Iraq within the next 16 months.
• 61 percent say he’ll reduce taxes for the middle class
  

However, for my moderate and Jewish Republican friends there is one number that will stand out more than the rest - 73%. According to this poll,  Governor Sarah Palin has a favorable/unfavorable rating among Republicans of 73%-13%. That's right, for those Jewish Republicans who held their nose and voted for the McCain/Palin ticket, for those Jewish Republicans who chose to write-in their favorite celebrity, or even for those who voted for Obama/Biden but still align themselves with the Republican Party, Palin isn't going anywhere.

From the first day of the McCain/Palin ticket, there was no doubt that the selection of Palin as the Party's Vice Presidential nominee meant that the already minuscule space for moderates in the Republican Party became even smaller. Furthermore, it is clear that the Jewish community, including some Republicans, did not support Palin's addition to the ticket. I'd imagine they also don't support her as the future of the Republican Party.

I wonder if Palin runs in 2012 there will be a way for Republican Jews to declare victory like they did with their 21% of the Jewish vote this year?

This entry is crossposted on The Huffington Post.

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