I was just looking over the internals of Rasmussen's Iowa poll released earlier today. Barack is 8 points ahead and Iowa continues to look not at all like a red state.
Beyond that, Barack's favorables are better than Mccain's, which is to be expected in a state where he leads. Joe Biden's favorables are fairly decent. And then, I saw something startling...Sarah Palin!
Obama’s running mate, Joe Biden, is viewed favorably by 51% and unfavorably by 44%. GOP running mate Sarah Palin is viewed favorably by 48% and unfavorably by 49%.
Holy shit! Her unfavorables are FAR higher than everyone else and her favorables are the lowest of all. I know that the Daily Kos/Research 2000 poll showed Sarah with a negative rating. But somehow I had a hard time believing it. This is the first poll that I see confirming just how far she's fallen. Compared to everyone else, she is remarkably unpopular. She is liked far less than Mccain is, which means some of her low ratings come from Republicans and conservative Independents. This poll was taken after the disastrous Katie Couric interview that has reverberated so deeply that we now have even conservatives admitting that she's not prepared to be President.
Is there ANY doubt now that she is a drag on the ticket?
As is the analysis that I have seen in a few places, the Mccain campaign is obsessed with winning the moment, the news cycle. And they succeeded marvelous with Sarah as the Vice President....they won the newscycle for about two weeks. But the price they are paying is so immensely steep, that I am pretty sure they are wishing to have gone with the "Do no Harm" Pawlenty option.
And on an unrelated note: Please watch this video. I have to warn you....it is VERY DISTURBING. And it will make you want to register voters all day long for the next 5 weeks. But it's worth it, so please watch!