Oh my: Palin’s favorables back up to 47/42

PPP put her at 36/51 last month and ABC had her at 43/52 just three days ago. Now Fox drops this. Good lord — Sullivan’s going to have to take another few days off to cope with the data.

Despite being characterized by many as a divisive force in her party and the nation, Americans are much more likely to give Palin a positive rating (47 percent favorable) than another prominent female leader — Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (28 percent favorable). Moreover, about six in 10 Americans (61 percent) think Palin has been treated unfairly by the press, according to the latest Fox News poll…

Among self-identified Republicans in the survey, Palin gets the highest favorable ratings (70 percent) amid a group of other possible contenders for the GOP nomination, including Mike Huckabee (63 percent), Mitt Romney (60 percent) and Newt Gingrich (58 percent). Palin’s favorable score among all voters is 47 percent, up nine percentage points over last July’s reading of 38 percent…

President Obama recently stated that he “probably won’t” read Sarah Palin’s new book. But his possible opponent in the 2012 elections trails him in personal favorability by only seven points (54 percent to 47 percent). Among the critical segment of independent voters, they are virtually even (Obama at 50 percent; Palin at 49 percent).

Have her numbers moved that much that quickly or is this attributable to Fox’s sample, which split 38D/36R/20I? Likely a little of both. Republican party ID is waaay lower than 36 percent right now if most pollsters are to be believed, but conservative identification is on the rise and the GOP’s been leading the Dems on Rasmussen’s generic ballot for awhile. The D/R gap might be a bit narrow here, but only a bit. Meanwhile, remember that she did well enough on Oprah on Monday that even Palin-bashers felt obliged to say so afterwards. She’s never better than when she gets to show off her common touch, and Oprah was a perfect opportunity. No surprise to see her get a bounce from it.

Via Dan Calabrese and North Star National, here’s video of her arriving at yesterday’s book signing in Michigan; the cheers start at around 5:45. The next event is in Indiana, where people slept on the sidewalk overnight to be first in line. As Politico notes, this does feel a bit like a campaign tour and seems surprisingly well organized thus far given Team Palin’s reputation for sloppiness. Exit quotation: Is the ‘Cuda getting ready to take on Huckabee for the Christian vote? Hmmmmmmm.

Update: Forgot to mention that not all polls lately have had her favorables in negative territory. Rasmussen, notably, put them at 51/43 earlier this week.

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