Gallup is apparently desperate to drive traffic to their site to read about a rather trivial poll with the headline. The popularity of a politician right now, as opposed to when they are actually campaigning for office, is of some but not tremendous interest. Gallup reports that “John Edwards, Sarah Palin Both See Favorable Ratings Slide.”
It is somewhat of interest that Sarah Palin’s approval numbers are so low, but she has barely begun to do whatever she planned to do when she resigned as Governor. Such numbers will be far more significant once she is actually running for something. Besides, the poll shows that, despite a low approval, she remains competitive with Romney and Huckabee in the virtually meaningless polling on the 2012 nomination.
It is no surprise that Edwards’ popularity has dropped tremendously, and it is doubtful he will ever be elected to any office again.
Besides dropping in popularity, the two have little in common. Sure both are former vice presidential candidates and both are partially known for their hair, but otherwise their careers at this point have little in common. John Edwards’ popularity has dropped because he was caught cheating on his wife who is fighting cancer. Sarah Palin’s popularity has dropped because every time she opens her mouth, or posts about “death panels” on Facebook, she shows that she is unfit for national office. Most likely Edwards has given up on running for office while Palin is probably looking towards running in 2012. It makes little sense to include the two in the same poll. I’m just not sure which of the two should feel more insulted by being lumped with the other.
