Palin's popularity plummets

That rumbling you hear in the distance is the foundation of Sarah Palin's Village Elder support crumbling. Fareed Zakaria posts today at Newsweek and calls her eminently unqualified.

....In these times, for John McCain to have chosen this person to be his running mate is fundamentally irresponsible. McCain says that he always puts country first. In this important case, it is simply not true.

Kevin Drum at his new digs at MoJo finds that as startling a development as I did.

I don't want to overstate the importance of this, but it's definitely a sign that Palin's jig may be up. Zakaria frequently writes astutely, but he's something of an establishment weathervane, reluctant to state firm opinions unless he's got plenty of company. So if he's willing to say flatly that Palin is "utterly unqualified," it suggests that the center-right establishment pretty unanimously agrees about this. I don't know for sure that this will have a noticeable effect on the campaign, but when you add it to the growing list of conservatives who have taken similar stands (George Will, David Frum, Rod Dreher, Kathleen Parker, Ross Douthat, David Brooks, Charles Krauthammer), it suggests that dismay over Palin may be reaching critical mass.

Add to that this poll showing Palin with -10 favorability ratings and I'd say the people who have money on her not making it to November have a pretty good bet.

Poor Sarah. If she's forced to drop out, her homecoming to Alaska is likely to be less warm than before she fell into the clutches of the Beltway spin doctors. Be sure to check the photo gallery of the protest.


[More posts daily at The Newshoggers and The Detroit News.]