There's Palin and there's Polls...........

I wouldn’t be surprised if one reader took me to task about the statement I’m about to make, but still ………..

Grand Rapids, in the great state of Michigan, is hardly the center of the universe nor even the crossroads of the nation but it didn’t seem that way last week. It’s not that nothing much ever happens there but, as I can attest, it is the site of one of the best presidential libraries I’ve seen, namely that of President Gerald Ford, which stands on the banks of the Grand River as it tumbles its way towards the lake. And I’m sure there are rapids as well but it’s just that I haven’t seen them as far as I know.

Anyway, on a cold and wet November evening, a line of people began to form which, by next morning, had swelled to a crowd estimated to be in the thousands for a book signing by one Sarah Palin. You know her; the ex-governor of Alaska; John McCain’s running mate; an attractive and smart woman hated and reviled by the drive-by media. Then of course she also earned the ultimate accolade by being lampooned on “Saturday Night Live”.

Ever since Ms. Palin came into the national spotlight those wise arbiters of the political scene have sneered, ridiculed and denigrated this woman and have never stopped reassuring us of her irrelevance in the grand scheme of things as they see it.

When Al Gore’s now infamous treatise on global warming appeared the Associated Press assigned 1 reporter to fact-check the tome. That same organization put 11 people on the case of Ms. Palin’s book. MSNBC dispatched 17 reporters to Grand Rapids and one of them, the intrepid Norah O’Donnell, was convinced that a Pulitzer Prize was in the offing when she decided to grill a 17-year old girl who was one of those waiting in line. Unfortunately for the unsuspecting and overly confident Ms. O’Donnell, she encountered a very erudite high school Junior who knew more about the Constitution than she did herself and so she was forced to slink off to go in search of weaker prey.

And it wasn’t just in Grand Rapids as the book sold 300,000 copies nationwide the first day and that didn’t include the pre-launch orders.

Thus, we must ask the question. If Sarah Palin is such a non-entity and irrelevant to the political scene how come all the media scrutiny? Why do they fear her as a force for the Right and as a possible candidate at some point?

The answer is that more people in this country see themselves as conservative rather than liberal and, as it stands today, 74% of Republicans do not feel that their representatives on Capitol Hill are in touch with that mood. Contrast that with the fact that 59% of likely Republican voters say that Sarah Palin shares their values and only 18% see her as a divisive force within the GOP.

While all this was going on, Obama returned from another apology tour of the world with no agreement on anything and no achievement either unless you count another flub of protocol.

No wonder, therefore, that Rasmussen reports a minus 14% rating overall and every other, more granular poll, from the Afghan war to Gitmo to the proposed trial in New York City to healthcare presents very bad news for Axelrod et al.

It couldn't happen to a nicer bunch ........

However, the rise of conservatism, personified for now at least, by Sarah Palin may worry Obama more than all the other polls I just mentioned.

Could it be that the site of remembrance for one conservative President could be the phoenix for another?