Sarah Palin's popularity has always been a myth

Sarah Palin's percentages appear to be slipping fast. In a straw poll at the 2011 CPAC, Sarah Palin came in 9th place, with only 3% of the votes.

Ron Paul – 30 percent
Mitt Romney – 23 percent
Gary Johnson – 6 percent
Chris Christie – 6 percent
Newt Gingrich – 5 percent
Tim Pawlenty – 4 percent
Michele Bachmann – 4 percent
Mitch Daniels – 4 percent
Sarah Palin – 3 percent
Herman Cain – 2 percent
Mike Huckabee – 2 percent
Rick Santorum – 2 percent
John Thune – 2 percent
Jon Huntsman – 1 percent
Haley Barbour – 1 percent
Other – 5 percent
Undecided –1 percent

Last year Sarah Palin came came 3rd, with 7% of the total votes:

Ron Paul - 31 percent
Mitt Romney - 22 percent
Sarah Palin - 7 percent
Tim Pawlenty - 6 percent
Newt Gingrich - 4 percent
Mike Huckabee - 4 percent
Mike Pence - 5 percent
Sen. John Thune - 2 percent
Mitch Daniels - 2 percent
Rick Santorum - 2 percent
Hailey Barbour - 1 percent
Other - 5 percent
Undecided - 6 percent

The CPAC straw polls are popularity contests among fellow Republicans and are different from an actual election, of course. Let's have a look at the election results that placed Sarah Palin in office.

Sarah Palin received 48.33% of the vote in the election for governor, 114,697 votes. That's based on the number of people who voted, but it represents only 22% of the total number of people entitled to vote. Only 47% of people elligible to vote actually bothered to cast their ballots.



Wasilla had 5,469 inhabitants in 2000. Sarah Palin was elected mayor in 1996 and re-elected in 1999. Based on the number of inhabitants above, of the people elligible to vote, only 20% voted in 1996 and 22% in 1999.

Sarah Palin's enormous popularity and highest approval rate of all governors around the country, as stated by the McCain campaign in 2008, is simply a myth. It's easy to spin anything based on the figures above if they're taken out of context of the reality regarding politics in Alaska.

A great number of people live in remote, isolated areas and even those who live in not so remote areas don't have much of a clue about politics in Alaska, nor are they interested in it. Here's a first hand account of some reactions to Sarah Palin's resignation. The people in question don't live in the isolation of the western or northern parts of the state, but in a well known town in the Prince William Sound area.

I walked around with a shirt I made the day after she quit, that said "Dude where's my Governor" inside an outline of Alaska that was blue and gold, the colors of our flag. For a full 2 months I had people who live here asking me what that was about. They had NO idea the woman had quit. That just goes to show how little people pay attention to what's going on in politics here.

Sarah Palin appears to be popular up and down the country. Everything she says or does is reported by the media because it sells. This may give the illusion of popularity.

I wouldn't say she's incredibly popular in the nice sense of the word. But I'll admit that she's extremely colourful... so is Lindsay Lohan.

It's been reported that Sarah Pac has hired a shiny new chief-of-staff, Michael Glassner. Is she going to run? My cynical mind tells me that this move has more to do with money than any actual plans to announce her candidacy. Her chances of securing the nomination as the GOP candidate appear to be minimal. Why not keep the donations coming in until the last possible moment? Unless she has plans for a third party run, which I don't believe would deliver her the big prize anyway...

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