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The new Daily Kos/Public Policy Polling survey of Alaska, unveiled a real shocker in its approval ratings section where President Barack Obama has a higher favorability rating in the state than former Gov. Sarah Palin. Obama’s job approval is 38% in Alaska compared to Palin’s favorability rating of 35%. Yes, Obama is now more popular than Palin in Alaska.

The Daily Kos/PPP survey revealed that in the three way United States Senate race, nothing much has changed as Joe Miller and Lisa Murkowski are caught in a tossup with Miller leading Murkowski 35%-33%, and Democrat Scott McAdams trailing both of them at 26%. The perception had been that Murkowski was hurting either Miller or McAdams, but in reality she is pulling support away from both of them. Murkowski is supported by 32% of McCain voters and 35% of Obama voters. She is supported by 25% of Democrats, 31% of Republicans and 38% of Independents. Her support is more moderate (47%) and conservative (24%) than liberal (17%). Both the Miller and McAdams campaigns have been arguing that Murkowski can’t win, but the breakdown of her support shows that she not only could win a three way race, but she very well might.

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The big surprise, although I suspect that the people who live in Alaska won’t be as shocked as everyone else to hear this, is that Sarah Palin is very unpopular in her home state. Her favorable rating in her home state is better than it is in the lower 48, but it is still shockingly low. Palin’s favorability rating in Alaska is 35%, which not coincidentally is the same as the Senate candidate she is backing, Joe Miller. Palin’s favorability rating nationally is anywhere from 22%-29%, so she only fares slightly better in Alaska. Palin’s disapproval rating is huge 57% in Alaska.

Those numbers are terrible, but what must really rub salt in the wound for Palin is that Barack Obama has a higher job approval rating in her own state than her favorability rating. Obama’s job approval rating in Alaska is 38%, and disapproval rating is 58%, which is in the expected range for a Democrat in a Red State, but the idea that the job that Obama is doing in the White House is more popular than the candidate who most desperate wants to replace him as president in her home state is a bit mind boggling.

I am sure that all of our readers and commenters from Alaska could and will give you detailed list of why Alaskans strongly dislike Palin below in the comment section, but I think it is safe to say that the fact that she quit on them probably ranks fairly highly on the list. The national media has largely glossed over the long term fallout from Palin’s decision to cash in and bail on the people in the state of Alaska who trusted her and elected her governor.

Nothing has done, and will continue to do as much damage to her presidential aspirations than the label of quitter. The truth is that if Palin can’t pull a 50% approval rating in her home state than she is not a threat to defeat Barack Obama in 2012. This is strongest evidence yet that Palin has no long term future in politics. This doesn’t mean that she could not win the GOP nomination in 2012.

The Republican Party is a train wreck with no leadership, so any candidate who can muster a faction of consistent support could win the nomination, but even if she was able to survive and emerge from a sure to be contentious nomination process, politically Sarah Palin is a dead end street, so the next time that you encounter a Palin supporter and they tell you that you are afraid of Sarah Palin, pause for a moment, smile, and ask them why Obama is more popular in Alaska than Palin? They probably won’t believe you, but the truth is that if Palin can’t beat Obama on her home court in Alaska, she has no chance of defeating him on the neutral court of the lower 48, which means that the myth of Sarah Palin has been once again stabbed by the cruel saber of reality.