Any theories as to why, aside from the obvious cynical one?

Before looking at the data, I would have guessed that it wasn’t men being pro-Palin so much as women treating the pick as a gender pander and turning anti-Palin. Not so; women are split evenly, and in the Gallup poll over the weekend were actually more likely to vote for McCain because of her than men were (20/11 versus 16/12). CBS must just be a blip, huh? Maybe not:

From Rasmussen: Some 38% of men said they were more likely to vote for McCain now, but only 32% of women. By a narrow 41% to 35% margin, men said she was not ready to be president — but women soundly rejected her, 48% to 25%…

Overall, voters expressed a favorable impression of her by a 53/26 margin, but there was a severe gender gap on this: Men embraced her at 58% to 23%, while for women it was 48/30.

Is that explainable by a pander backlash? Or is it simply a matter of the image of “the Barracuda” hunting moose and catching fish and snowmobiling appealing to men more viscerally than to women? Ironic if so, given all the lefty screeching about her being a feminine token. I wonder if the numbers will start to tilt back towards women identifying with her after today’s four-alarm parental situation.

Exit question: Eyeball the data here — the columns represent voters Overall, Republicans, Democrats, and Independents, respectively — and tell me, is Palinmania exclusively a grassroots phenomenon? Politically aware, politically active conservatives love her. The rest of the GOP seems either not to know her or not to care.