The Right and Mainstream America: A Universe Apart

Friday, October 10th, 2008 by RLR

From Salon
By Glenn Greenwald

As the Right increasingly (a) demands to hear more about Bill Ayers and Obama The Communist/Muslim Terrorist and (b) proclaims Sarah Palin to be the darling of the Regular American and the new right-wing superstar — claims that are converging in the traveling lynch mob tour known as the “McCain/Palin campaign” — two new polls, one from Newsweek and one from Fox (.pdf), conclusively demonstrate how out-of-touch and fringe the Right has become. Both polls show that as the Right reveals its true Ayers-driven face to the nation, (a) Obama’s popularity holds steady while McCain and Palin’s plummets, and (b) Sarah Palin is a massive liability for the McCain campaign.

The Newsweek poll shows Obama/Biden with a lead of 11 points (up from 4 points a month ago) and Fox shows Obama/Biden with a 7-point lead (they had McCain winning by 3 a month ago), but in terms of seeing what the right-wing movement in this country has become, how fringe and disconnected from reality they are, the more revealing facts are buried inside the poll numbers.

In the new Newsweek poll, taken over the last two days in the midst of the Ayers attacks, Obama now has a +24 favorability rating (60/36), which has improved from the +20 (57/37) he registered in last month’s poll. In the new poll, McCain’s favorability rating is only +6 (51/45), which has worsened substantially since the +21 he registered last month (57/36). The same has happened to Sarah Palin’s rating, which has dropped from +20 (52/32) in the prior month to a meager +4 now (49/45).

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