Palin, a Heroine to the Tea Party, Gets High Negatives From General Public

Sarah Palin, who was the main attraction at a Tea Party rally Saturday in Nevada, has become a force in the Republican Party but the overall public sees her negatively by a 55 percent to 37 percent margin, with 7 percent undecided, according to a Washington Post poll conducted March 23-26.

Forty-one percent fall into the camp of those who "strongly" see her unfavorably while 17 percent "strongly" regard her in a positive light.

Further highlighting her standing as what the Post called "a political lightening rod," 66 percent of Republicans see her favorably compared to 61 percent of Democrats who see her unfavorably. (Thirty-five percent of the Republicans say they "strongly" see her favorably). When it's broken down to self-described Republican conservatives and Democrat liberals, 71 percent of the conservatives regard her favorably and 74 percent of the liberals see her unfavorably.

Palin has a 60 percent favorable rating among those who also view the Tea Party movement favorably.

Independents see her unfavorably by 55 percent to 38 percent.

As for the Tea Party movement itself, 41 percent regard it favorably and 39 percent unfavorably, with 20 percent having no opinion, according to the poll. Forty-six percent say they agree with the movement's positions based on what they know about them while 40 percent do not, with 14 percent having no opinion.

Thirty-eight percent of all those surveyed say the movement is exerting the right amount of influence on the Republican Party, 24 percent say too little and 23 percent say too much. Among Republicans, 45 percent say the movement's influence is the right amount, 31 percent say too little and 10 percent say too much.

The Post's findings differ from a Quinnipiac University poll conducted March 16-21 which said 28 percent of registered voters (The Post measured all adults) saw the Tea Party favorably, 23 percent saw it unfavorably while 49 percent said they hadn't heard enough about it to express an opinion. Forty-seven percent of Republicans saw it favorably, 7 percent did not and 45 percent didn't have an opinion. Democrats saw the movement unfavorably by 40 percent to 5 percent with 54 percent not having an opinion, while independents saw it favorably by 33 percent to 19 percent with 47 percent expressing no opinion.

Quinnipiac had a closer result to the Post on Palin with 53 percent seeing her unfavorably, 32 percent favorably and 14 percent expressing no opinion.

In the Quinnipiac poll, 13 percent of those surveyed said they considered themselves party of the Tea Party movement.

A Bloomberg poll conducted March 19-22 showed 33 percent viewing the Tea Party favorably, 31 percent seeing it unfavorably with 36 percent undecided.

Twenty six percent said they supporters the movement, 53 percent did not and 21 percent were not sure.


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