The extra "e": Palin's approval hits low point

A new Washington Post/ABC poll shows Sarah Palin with her worst approval numbers since entering the national stage.

40% view the outgoing Governor positively, while 53% view her negatively. But things like that can always change.

What's going to be tougher to overcome is that by 20%, Americans don't think she has the ability to understand complex issues.

The numbers mirror another troubling poll, released July 13 from CBS, that showed 65% of Americans and 51% of Republicans don't think she has the skills necessary to be an effective President.

Add that to her -14% spread on whether she's a strong leader and you get the sense that her rhetoric of alleged platitudes and cliches (Charles Krauthammer's description) and decision to resign in her first term are beginning to haunt her (The recent CBS poll (pdf) also found that, by a large margin, most Americans think she resigned to further her political career, and not for the good of Alaska).

So what's happening? There's the chance we're starting to see a word emerge, and it reads something like "potatoe".

Can she overcome the extra "e"?

UPDATE: Alex Koppelman:

The Post's own numbers show her favorability rating has barely changed at all since last fall. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points, and it shows the percentage of respondents who say they have a favorable impression of her dropping six points since late October -- that is, within the margin. Her unfavorable rating is up only two points, from 51 percent to 53 percent. Again, that's within the margin of error.

What those results show, really, is how resilient Palin is, at least when it comes to her poll numbers, and how resistant those numbers are to change.

Indeed. The extra "e" is the story in this story.