Sarah Barracuda - Damn the Media and Full Steam Ahead!

The conventions are over and I am looking at the numbers coming across the web and they are shocking.  A while back we covered the topic of media bias and sexism that was directed at Hillary Clinton and opined that it helped Barack Obama win the Democratic nomination by a slim margin. (By the way, in a little covered story, the DNC just announced that over 1000 delegates still voted for Sen. Clinton even after she released her delegates to vote for Obama –Yes We Can?)

It turns out that the assault on Hillary was just the warm up for a full beat down that was given to Gov. Sarah Palin after John McCain named her to the ticket a week ago.  The attacks on her experience, gender, kids, looks and home state have been well documented and I will spare you my rants and raves about NBC, Keith Olberman, Campbell Brown, CNN, Rachel Maddow, Andrea Mitchell, Jonathan Alter, Sally Quinn, Maureen Dowd, The New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Gloria Steinem, The Daily Kos, Andrew Sullivan et al. 

The media pile on got so bad that stories started circulating that she may drop out and the McCain campaign would be embarrassed and doomed.  The sharks were circling and smelling blood.  My two cents is that sexism and the double standard were just a small part of the vitriol.  The left leaning mainstream media has decided that Obama must be elected President at all costs.  They have personally invested themselves in this notion and there is no turning back now.  Oprah endorsed him and they can’t let her down.  They knew that the pick of Palin could finally get the conservative base off the sidelines and enthusiastic about a McCain/Palin ticket. 

All was riding on her Wed. night speech at a lackluster convention that was delayed by a hurricane.  Living up to her High School nickname, Sarah Barracuda, she ripped the roof off the place and delivered the best address by a Republican since Ronald Reagan.  She connected with people and went after Obama with a smile and a wink as only Reagan could.  She made Obama’s thin resume and “community organizing” a national joke, and showed herself to be tough, smart and ready.  And, it was viewed by 40 million Americans, the same number who watched Obama the week before.  (This just in – last night McCain received higher ratings than Obama did last Thursday night.) But, did it matter?  Here are the results as of today, exactly one week after she was introduced to the country as a virtual unknown:

From Rasmussen’s Tracking Polls

A week ago, most Americans had never heard of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. Now, following a Vice Presidential acceptance speech viewed live by more than 40 million people, Palin is viewed favorably by 58% of American voters. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 37% hold an unfavorable view of the self-described hockey mom. The figures include 40% with a Very Favorable opinion of Palin and 18% with a Very Unfavorable view

The new data also shows significant increases in the number who say McCain made the right choice and the number who say Palin is ready to be President. Generally, John McCain’s choice of Palin earns slightly better reviews than Barack Obama’s choice of Joe Biden. Perhaps most stunning is the fact that Palin’s favorable ratings are now a point higher than either man at the top of the Presidential tickets this year. As of Friday morning, Obama and McCain are each viewed favorably by 57% of voters. Biden is viewed favorably by 48%.

The Rasmussen tracking poll has the race virtually tied wiping out Obama’s convention bounce, and one third of the survey’s interviews were conducted before Palin’s speech and all of them were done before McCain’s acceptance.  A CBS tracking poll also has the race tied, while Gallup has Obama up four, but many of the interviews in their tracking poll were conducted before Palin’s and McCain’s RNC addresses.  The Monday report will have the full impact of both conventions for the first time.

Some other tidbits – SurveyUSA’s poll reports that 60% gave Palin an A for her speech and 11% a B.  The same survey shows that voters think she is more of an asset to McCain than Biden is to Obama, and now think that McCain will win.  Oh, and one more – 54% think that the media is rooting for Obama, while 8% feel that way about McCain.  That echoes an earlier Rasmussen poll that said 51% thought the media was being unfair to Gov. Palin and 24% were more likely to vote for her because of that.

Here is the big surprise from Rasmussen today:

Following the Wednesday night speech, voters are fairly evenly divided as to whether Palin or Obama has the better experience to be President. Forty-four percent (44%) of voters say Palin has the better experience while 48% say Obama has the edge. Among unaffiliated voters, 45% say Obama has better experience while 42% say Palin.

              

Think about that for a minute – they are comparing the Democrat running for President against the Republican’s VP.  Obama has been at this for 18 months and has had the media fawning all over him.  In just one week his lack of experience has been exposed.  The turnaround is an incredible change in perception from a 45 minute speech where the mother of five looked into the eyes of the country and spoke from her heart. 

All this could change by next Friday, and you can bet the media will continue to go after Palin and try and trip her up.  However, you can’t deny that the voters of the country are sending a powerful message to the media:  Stop the smears and we don’t care what you think!  As usual the mainstream media is denying any bias, but they need to stop reporting for each other, the Boston/NY/DC corridor and their personal agenda’s.  A nice change for them may be the central message from John McCain this week – Country First.

P.S. Take a break from all these numbers and read this National Review satirical column on Barack Obama and the Chicago machine.  It is laugh out loud funny.