The latest PPP polling shows Romney, finally, starting to consolidate the Republican base in the wake of his seemingly inevitable coronation. But it also had this revealing, albeit depressing, side note:
The talk of a brokered convention never seems to die down and one interesting finding on this poll was that Sarah Palin is far more popular than any of the actual Republican candidates in the race. Her net favorability is +48, with 68% of [Republican] voters rating her favorably to only 20% with a negative opinion. That compares favorably to +29 for Santorum, +19 for Romney, and -26 for Paul.
Palin is someone GOP delegates might be able to unify around in the case of a hopelessly deadlocked convention. She is seen positively by Gingrich voters (85/7), Santorum supporters (80/10), and Romney ones (57/27) alike. That’s a contrast to Romney who is disliked by both Santorum (38/48) and Gingrich (32/54) voters and Santorum who is disliked by Romney (38/48) voters and only seen narrowly favorably by Gingrich (46/42) backers.
I can think of no swifter route to the GOP becoming a national and international laughingstock than, in their moment of doubt and crisis, turning to a proven charlatan and ignoramus like Palin as their unifying great white (and I do mean white) hope. And if she only has to campaign for two months, that just might be a short enough time that she can be bothered to rouse herself to work, and a small enough window that someone could imagine she could successfully be shielded from any public interactions that would further reveal what an idiot she is. (Alas, there is no window small enough for that.)
It won’t happen, of course. Romney has the nomination locked up, and given the alternatives, he could be caught in bed with the proverbial dead girl or live boy and he’d still be the nominee. (He’d blame Obama.) But: what a telling snapshot of who the current GOP is. Sarah. Fucking. Palin. Remind me again why it is that our political and media establishment treats this collection of asylum inmates as though it has any legitimacy at all to govern the world’s most powerful country?