Though Sarah Palin’s 58 percent favorability rating among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents is the third highest of potential GOP presidential candidates (behind Mike Huckabee’s 61 percent and Mitt Romney’s 60 percent), her ratings have dropped significantly, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. She had an 88 percent approval rating after the 2008 Republican National Convention and a 70 percent rating last October. Her negative rating among GOP and GOP-leaning voters has increased to 37 percent.
“Here in Washington, the immigration debate is in stalemate. But in Kansas, there has been a breakthrough,” wrote Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank, one of many national voices to weigh in on the ugly joke by state Rep. Virgil Peck, R-Tyro, suggesting Kansas use helicopters to shoot not only feral hogs but also illegal immigrants. “There are a few logistical problems with Peck’s idea, including the fact that Kansas isn’t a border state. But maybe Oklahoma and Texas will grant overflight rights for immigrant-hunting sorties,” Milbank wrote. Rep. Charlie Gonzalez, D-Texas, chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, was unamused, telling the Dallas Morning News: “Speaking of human beings like animals and implying gun violence as an acceptable course of action crosses a line that his own party and his own peers should not tolerate.”
“When one looks across the Arab world today at the stunning spontaneous democracy uprisings, it is impossible to not ask: What are we doing spending $110 billion this year supporting corrupt and unpopular regimes in Afghanistan and Pakistan that are almost identical to the governments we’re applauding the Arab people for overthrowing?” wrote columnist Thomas Friedman. He acknowledged that the United States “can’t just walk out of Afghanistan and Pakistan,” but Friedman argued that “our involvement in these two countries — 150,000 troops to confront al-Qaida — is totally out of proportion today with our interests and out of all sync with our values.”
Though Sarah Palin’s 58 percent favorability rating among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents is the third highest of potential GOP presidential candidates (behind Mike Huckabee’s 61 percent and Mitt Romney’s 60 percent), her ratings have dropped significantly, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. She had an 88 percent approval rating after the 2008 Republican National Convention and a 70 percent rating last October. Her negative rating among GOP and GOP-leaning voters has increased to 37 percent.
