Sarah Palin: Rock star or cement weight?

by Mark Silva

Sarah Palin, the Palinomenon from Nowhere, stepped onto the national stage as a rock star in the making, electrifying the conservative base of her party and offering a stunning new post-feminist alternative to the Hillary Clinton whom so many voters had learned to hate.

The question now, with less than two weeks until Election Day, is whether the maligned in many quarters and adored in others first-term governor of Alaska will boost the struggling campaign of Republican presidential John McCain with a vote-getting "now is not the time'' to vote for "socialism,'' as Palin has attempted to define the campaign of Democratic nominees Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

Palin plays to made-for-MTV party crowds - a "rock star,'' CNN's Ed Henry called her this week in Colorado. But the public perception of Palin also has plummeted, in the views of many who welcomed her to the national stage and now wonder what she is doing there.

""Sarah Palin appears to be a continuing - if not an increasing - drag on the GOP ticket,'' the Pew Research Center's Andrew Kohut reported this week of his new polling showing Obama with a double-digit advantage over McCain this week. "Palin's favorable ratings have declined sharply since mid-September, especially among women under 50 - Sixty percent now express an unfavorable view of Palin, up from 36 percent in mid-September.

"The balance of voter opinion regarding Sarah Palin has moved from positive to negative,'' the Pew Center reports. "In the current survey, 49 percent of voters express an unfavorable opinion of the Alaska governor, while 44 percent express a positive opinion, in mid-September, 54 percent viewed Palin favorably, compared with 32 percent who had an unfavorable opinion.''

Initially, polling found that McCain was attracting white women in droves, leading many to conclude that Obama should have made Clinton his running mate. Now, polling shows voters turning away from the McCain-Palin ticket.

A new NBC News and Wall Street Journal poll reported Tuesday night finds that 55 percent of those surveyed say Palin is not qualified to serve as president. It shows McCain 10 points down, behind Obama.

As this long-fought campaign closes, Palin "is getting the rock star treatment, drawing much bigger crowds than her running mate, Sen. John McCain,''. CNN's Henry reports. "But it's still a mystery whether the 'Palin factor' will drive enough conservatives to the polls to offset Sen. Barack Obama's gains with independent voters.

"During her stops in battleground states, Palin, the Republican vice presidential nominee, has continued her role as the main attack dog,'' Henry reports. "She continues to rip into the Democratic ticket, suggesting that Obama and Sen. Joe Biden's plan to raise the taxes of those making over $250,000 smacks of "socialism."

"Barack Obama calls it 'spreading the wealth.' Joe Biden calls higher taxes patriotic. Joe the plumber said it sounded to him like socialism. And now is not the time to experiment with that," Palin said during a rally Monday in Grand Junction, Colorado.

Yet, Palin's place on the ticket has earned some particularly critical notice in the newspaper endorsements siding with Obama's campaign.

"Our of nowhere, and without proper vetting, the impetuous McCain picked Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate,'' the Salt Lake Tribune, the newspaper in the state where President Bush racked up his biggest victory in 2004, said in its editorial endorsement of Obama on Sunday,. "She quickly proved grievously under-euipped to step into the presidency should McCain, at 72 and with a history of health problems, die in office.

"More than any single factor, McCain's bad judgment in choosing the inarticulate, insular and ethically challenged Palin disqualifies him for the presidency.''

Colin Powell, the former secretary of state in the Bush administration, echoed the sentiment that McCain's selection of Palin said something troubling about McCain.

"She's a very distinguished woman, and she's to be admired; but at the same time, now that we have had a chance to watch her for some seven weeks, I don't believe she's ready to be president of the United States, which is the job of the vice president,'' Powell said Sunday on Meet the Press.

"And so that raised some question in my mind as to the judgment that Senator McCain made,'' Powell said. " On the Obama side, I watched Mr. Obama and I watched him during this seven-week period. And he displayed a steadiness, an intellectual curiosity, a depth of knowledge and an approach to looking at problems like this and picking a vice president that, I think, is ready to be president on Day One.''