Our most recent national poll found that among voters undecided about how they'll vote for Congress this fall the major national political figure who inspires the strongest feelings in them is Sarah Palin. I don't know that there is any sure fire strategy that will help Democrats mitigate their losses this fall but running against Palin could be it.
The undecideds are pretty ambivalent when it comes to their feelings about Barack Obama- 44% of them approve of him and 44% disapprove so he's pretty much a wash. Narrow majorities of them do like some other major Democratic figures- 55/31 favorability for Hillary Clinton, 51/28 for Michelle Obama, 52/39 for Bill Clinton. It's too bad for the party they can't send Hillary out on the campaign trail but with the remaining undecideds the First Lady and the former President should be a positive influence.
None of those folks inspire nearly as strong of feelings with this fall's swing voters as Sarah Palin though. A whooping 65% of them have an unfavorable opinion of her to only 17% who see her in a positive light. And it's not as if that's a function of the remaining undecideds strongly disliking Republicans across the board-only 41% have a negative opinion of Glenn Beck and Newt Gingrich and that falls to 33% for Mike Huckabee and just 25% for Mitt Romney.
The group of folks who haven't made up their minds yet is 14% Democrats, 21% Republicans, and 65% independents. They're not really sold on the President but they know they don't like Sarah Palin- making the Republican Party the Palin Party could help push Democratic candidates across the finish line in a lot of this year's close races.
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