(Reuters/Brian Snyder)
Tom Jensen of PPP is always very thorough, making sure to explore every political nook and electoral cranny of all the states he polls in. Even the "odds and ends," as he likes to call them, are often enlightening, especially when he puts them in context. And his recent Arizona survey is particularly enjoyable—or should I say that it's good news... for John McCain:
John McCain and Joe Lieberman have been intertwined a lot over the last few years and here's another place where they share company—they are two of the three least popular out of the 81 sitting Senators PPP has done approval polls on since the beginning of 2010. McCain's approval rating is only 34% with 53% of voters disapproving of him. That makes him the third least popular. Lieberman is the least popular and John Ensign is the second least popular.
Lieberman and McCain have the same problem—they're not very popular with their party base but no one else likes them either. Only 44% of Republicans approve of McCain to 40% who disapprove and his spread is only 31/58 with independents and 23/67 with Democrats. There are other 'maverick' Senators who are not all that popular within their own parties—the Olympia Snowes and Susan Collins' and Lindsey Grahams of the world- but they make up for it with good numbers from independents and Democrats. McCain and Lieberman's actions have just caused pretty much everyone to dislike them.
Tom glides over it, but both McCain and Lieberman are in John Ensign territory—a senator so awful he's not even a senator anymore! It takes a special talent to piss off everyone as much as these two jokes have, but even more amazingly, between them, they've sought a spot on the national ticket four times in the last three presidential elections. Lieberman at least finally had the sense to realize that being unpopular makes you, ya know, unpopular... which unfortunately means we won't get to defeat him at the ballot box next year. But hey, maybe more numbers like these will convince John McCain to run again in 2016 (he'll only be 80 then, young for the Senate). Then we could beat him soundly once more, and maybe then, finally, the traditional media will understand it's in fact bad news... for John McCain.