Sarah Palin's Growing Radioactivity

From the time she was first nominated and her extremist religious views began to seep out, I was hoping that in time Sarah Palin might become the equivalent of a toxic radioactive stew with moderate and independent voters who do not embrace a lunatic Christianist view of the world and/or confuse the constitutional rule of law with the Bible. A new NBC poll suggests that the American public is increasingly coming to recognize just how irresponsibly John McCain acted when he selected Palin as his VP running mate. (Personally, I still suspect that James Dobson and others of the extreme Kool-Aid drinking element of the GOP forced her on McCain). One can only hope that Palin will continue to drag the GOP down with her and - if the party is lucky - the realization will set in that the GOP must jettison the Christianists if it wants to be a mainstream party in the future as opposed to a religion based party shunned by the majority of Americans who want a secular government as opposed a Christian version of the Taliban. Here are some highlights form MSNBC:

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WASHINGTON - With voters’ increased confidence in his ability to serve as commander in chief, as well as a majority who now believe he would do a good job as president, Barack Obama has opened up his biggest advantage over John McCain in the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.

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Obama’s current lead is also fueled by his strength among independent voters (topping McCain 49 to 37 percent), suburban voters (53 to 41), Catholics (50 to 44) and white women (49 to 45). . . . . “Obama’s beginning to meet a threshold of acceptance among voters.”

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That doesn’t appear to be the case with McCain’s running mate, Sarah Palin. Fifty-five percent of respondents say she’s not qualified to serve as president if the need arises, up five points from the previous poll. In addition, for the first time, more voters have a negative opinion of her than a positive one. In the survey, 47 percent view her negatively, versus 38 percent who see her in a positive light.

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Now, Palin’s qualifications to be president rank as voters’ top concern about McCain’s candidacy - ahead of continuing President Bush’s policies, enacting economic policies that only benefit the rich and keeping too high of a troop presence in Iraq. . . . Hart argues that voters have turned against Palin. The negative opinions of her have “reflected badly on McCain and essentially hurt the ticket dramatically.”

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But what the poll shows is that McCain — with 14 days until Election Day — has lost ground with independent and swing voters, Hart says. “If you don’t win the middle in America, you don’t win the election.”