Staggeringly, despite a long record of point-blank lies, 55 percent of Americans still believe Sarah Palin is honest. 71 percent believe she is unqualified to be president. The real change in the ratings comes in her favorability/unfavorability numbers: favorables down from around 60 percent just after her convention speech to around 40 percent today and unfavorables rocketing from 27 to 51 in a little over a year. Huckabee remains the front-runner. And in an odd way, occupying the space between Romney and Palin surely helps him.
It's hard to see how someone who has just quit her government job in the middle of her term can gain enough experience and qualifications in government to surmount that 71 percent in three years. But Kristol will try.