Public image of Sarah Palin
[3][4][5][6] A poll taken by Rasmussen Reports just after the Republican National Convention in the first week of September 2008 found that Palin was more popular than either Barack Obama or John McCain;[7] however, this perception later reversed.
This was "the lowest vote of confidence in a running mate since the elder George Bush chose then-Indiana senator Dan Quayle to join his ticket in 1988.
[5][13][14][15] A February 2010 poll for ABC News and The Washington Post showed 71% of Americans felt Palin lacked the qualifications necessary to be President of the United States.
[23] During the campaign, Palin evoked a more strongly divided response than Joe Biden among voters and was viewed both more favorably and unfavorably when compared to her opponent.
[26] Environmental organizations, including the Center for Biological Diversity, the Sierra Club Alaska, and Greenpeace strongly opposed Palin's positions on issues of energy and environment and criticized Palin for her skepticism regarding humans as the cause of global warming and her administration's positions on wildlife, including the attempt to have the federal designation of the polar bear as a threatened species removed.
[29][30][31] Palin had been involved in Independent Charismatic circles and was a member of an NAR "spiritual warfare network" linked to prophet Cindy Jacobs, through which she was reportedly encouraged to go into politics.
[31] Following the Republican National Convention, the McCain campaign told CNN that Palin "doesn't consider herself Pentecostal," raising the possibility for commentators that she might be downplaying her faith.
[37] On September 16, 2008, the National Organization for Women (NOW) gave its endorsement in the presidential race to Democratic candidate Barack Obama and his running mate Joe Biden.
The Independent of London reported: "The feminist organisation almost never supports a presidential candidate, but the Alaska governor's Christian fundamentalist faith and her opposition to abortion rights has forced its hand.
A New York Times article explained: "Mrs. Clinton and Ms. Palin have little in common beyond their breakout performances at the conventions and the soap opera aspects of their family lives.
Ex-Hewlett-Packard chief executive and former McCain advisor Carly Fiorina blasted the Saturday Night Live sketch in a television interview: "They were defining Hillary Clinton as very substantive and Sarah Palin as totally superficial,"[48] and an ABC news blog headline soon after ran, "Now the McCain Campaign's Complaining that Saturday Night Live Skit Was 'Sexist'.
"[49] In a September 2008 article, Chad Baus the vice chairman of the Buckeye Firearms Association comments:[50] "Unlike Mitt Romney and John Kerry, Palin is a life-long NRA member and big animal hunter....
"[51] On August 7, 2009, Palin released a statement on her Facebook page in which she said: "The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama's 'death panel' so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their 'level of productivity in society,' whether they are worthy of health care.
"[53] The provision of the health care bill to which Palin referred (on page 425)[54] merely authorizes Medicare reimbursement for physicians who provide voluntary counseling about such subjects as living wills.
Former Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Newt Gingrich agreed with Palin, saying that "there are clearly people in America who believe in establishing euthanasia, including selective standards.
[58] The ideas for Palin's death panel meme came from the editorial Deadly Doctors, which was written by Betsy McCaughey and published by the New York Post.
[75] After the McCain-Palin ticket lost the elections, media coverage focused on rumors of infighting within the McCain campaign, reporting that campaign staffers stated Palin had refused preparation for her interview with Katie Couric, was at times emotionally intractable, could not list the three members of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and was unaware that Africa is a continent rather than a country, had scheduled an interview with French President Nicolas Sarkozy which turned out to be a radio station prank, spent far more than the reported amount on her campaign wardrobe, and asked to make her own concession speech on election night.
[78] In March 2010, Palin posted to her Facebook page to seek contributions to SarahPAC to help defeat 20 House Democrats in the 2010 congressional election.
"[97][98] Palin released a video denying any link between her rhetoric and the shooting, controversially referring to such suggestions as a blood libel, also saying that, "Acts of monstrous criminality stand on their own.
[107] Controversy arose concerning Palin's dismissal of the Wasilla police chief at the start of her first term as mayor,[108][109] and her firing of the public commissioner while governor of Alaska (what the media referred to as "troopergate").
[115] In April 2009, SurveyUSA reported job approval ratings for the following U.S. governors: Bob Riley (AL) 54%, Arnold Schwarzenegger (CA) 25%, Chet Culver (IA) 42%, Kathleen Sebelius (KS) 46%, Steve Beshear (KY) 47%, Tim Pawlenty (MN) 46%, Jay Nixon (MO) 56%, Bill Richardson (NM) 46%, David Paterson (NY) 25%, Ted Kulongoski (OR) 40%, Tim Kaine (VA) 50%, Christine Gregoire (WA) 40%, and Jim Doyle (WI) 35%.
According to Vogue magazine, "Besides being telegenic, [Palin] had a tough-girl Alaskan résumé that most politicians could only dream of—the protein her family eats comes from fish she has pulled out of the ocean with her own hands and caribou she has shot.
"[130] A profile in The New Yorker described Palin's oratorical style as "simultaneously chatty and urgent," and noted that "she reinforces her words with winks and nods and wrinklings of her nose that seem meant to telegraph intimacy and ease."
"[144] The image superimposed was of a local Alaskan right-wing radio show host and was implying that he was her "baby" regarding his positive coverage of her governorship foibles.
In July 2009, Palin threatened to sue any media outlet that printed rumors that she was being investigated by the FBI on corruption charges involving inappropriate contracts.
[147] Taylor Marsh of The Huffington Post called it "the worst case of pictorial sexism aimed at political character assassination ever done by a traditional media outlet.
[154] A Palin series on Fox News called Real American Stories[154] generated some controversy since several of the guests shown "interviewed" by her claimed to have never met her: L.L.
"[168][169] Some street art in New York City also parodied Palin before the 2008 election, including one employing Shepard Fairey's Barack Obama "Hope" poster.
[186][187] Palin herself uttered this phrase when she made an October 18, 2008 guest appearance on Saturday Night Live, filling in the blank for Alec Baldwin, who could not remember what people called her.
[202] Going Rouge is compiled by Richard Kim and Betsy Reed, two editors of the left-leaning weekly The Nation, and includes essays by Katrina vanden Heuvel, Naomi Klein, Katha Pollitt and others.
