Poll: Sarah Palin Really Unpopular in Alaska

It’s not good news for Sarah Palin that the people who know her best are among those who like her least. And according to polling data released by Public Policy Polling, Palin’s fellow Alaskans have an especially dim view of their former half-term governor.

PPP, a well-regarded Democratic firm, has measured Palin’s favorability in 10 states (ranging from battlegrounds like Ohio to predictably partisan places like Alaska and Massachusetts) for the last couple of months and--not surprisingly--she is uniformly under water. But of the 10 states, only voters in Massachusetts (27 percent approve and 68 percent disapprove) take a dimmer view of Palin than in Alaska (33/58). You can find the entire set of results here.

[See photos of Palin and her family.]

And as PPP’s Tom Jensen notes:

And her average favorability in the Bush/Obama states of Florida, Ohio, North Carolina, and Virginia that are most likely essential to Republican chances of retaking the White House is 36/56. Democrats can only hope...

Jensen points to the failed Joe Miller Senate campaign as evidence of Palin’s problems in Alaska, but I would argue it holds an important lesson for Republicans nationally.

Miller allowed himself to practically become a surrogate for Palin and while that was good for letting him pull off a primary victory by the slimmest of margins it was not so good for his prospects in the general election.

That same formulation could spell doom for the GOP in 2012. Palin’s immense popularity among GOP voters, and especially the Tea Party activists who seem to hold sway in the party at the moment, could be enough to pull her through the primaries. But given her broader negatives it would not be so good for her prospects in the general election.[See editorial cartoons about Sarah Palin.]

Democrats can only hope (and pray) indeed.

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