Despite a meteoritic rise to the national stage, Alaska Governor Sarah
Palin's popularity is falling according to a new poll.

DAYTON, OHIO, UNITED STATES (AUGUST 29, 2008) NBC -
Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, previously a virtual unknown in
national politics, burst on to the grand stage one day after the Democratic
National Convention. The attention has rarely shifted away.
Republican Presidential Nominee John McCain announced the 44-year-old
as his running mate in Dayton, Ohio on August 29.
McCain told voters that he selected the mother of five because she's an
outsider and reformer. The announcement gave the McCain camp the bump much
needed boost in early September and energized the Republican base.
Palin's political career began in 1992 when she was elected to Wasilla
City Council. She served two terms on the council and was elected mayor for
two terms. She gained the attention of Republican Party officials by promoting
growth and cutting property taxes.
Palin ran for lieutenant governor in 2002 but lost. After actively
campaigning for the Republican ticket under Frank Murkowski, she was appointed
to the panel that regulates the state's oil and gas industry.
She established herself as a party outsider by promoting a pipeline
project opposed by Murkowski. She ran against the governor in 2006, defeated
him in the primary and then defeated a former Democratic governor in the
general election.
As governor she has worked on ethics reform, sought to reduce state
spending and promoted a deal that would offer $500 million in seed money for
the construction of a natural gas pipeline.
Despite her casting as a fighter against corruption and abuse, Palin
has had her own ethics problems during her stint as governor. An Alaska ethics
inquiry found that Gov. Sarah Palin, the power of her office by pressuring
subordinates, including former Alaska public safety commissioner Walter
Monegan, to fire state trooper Michael Wooten - Palin's former brother-in-law.

She has also drawn criticism for her lack of foreign policy experience.
Palin obtained her first passport in 2007 before visiting U.S. troops in
Germany and Kuwait.
During the United Nations General Assembly in September, the campaign
sent her to New York to meet with world leaders and former Secretary of State
Henry Kissinger.
She has frequently played the traditional vice-presidential candidate
role as attack dog. A few weeks ago, she frequently asserted that Democratic
Presidential Nominee Barack Obama "pals around with terrorists."

Palin's popularity has been sinking in recent weeks. New poll numbers
indicate that the former buoy for the McCain campaign may now be a drag on the
Republican ticket. Fifty-five percent of Americans polled in a recent NBC
News/ Wall Street Journal poll said the Alaska governor is not qualified to be
president of the United States if needed. That number is up five percent from
a previous poll. The number of voters who have a negative view of Palin jumped
to 47 percent from 27 percent in September.
If elected, Palin would be the nation's first female vice president and
one of the country's youngest.