Rasmussen Poll Watch: Good News and Bad News

By Gene Schwimmer

Good news and Bad News for Republicans in yesterday's Rasmussen Generic Congressional Ballot:

Support for Republican congressional candidates has risen to its highest level in recent years, giving the GOP a seven-point lead over Democrats in the latest Congressional Ballot and stretching the out-of-power party's lead to six weeks in a row.

That "six-weeks-in-a-row" stretch, by the way, is a new GOP Obama-administration record as is the five-point gap between the two parties.

Also, after four days at 50% or above, Obama's overall approval rating returns to below-50% territory.

Sarah Palin fans, on the other hand, will be less than overjoyed to learn that in a hypothetical Sarah-Hillary match, Clinton trounces Palin 51%-39%. What's interesting about these numbers is the sex gap:

Women overwhelmingly favor Clinton over Palin, 59% to 32%. Men favor the GOP ex-governor by eight points, 48% to 40%.

I leave it to others to speculate on how much of this discrepancy to attribute to the "babe factor" and how much to women's propensity to favor the Mommy Party over the Daddy Party. I will say that I look forward to seeing what the women have to say in the comments section-oh, and that the Republican leadership should be thankful that Hillary Clinton doesn't look like Sarah Palin and Palin doesn't look like . . . well, let's not go there.

Oh, and a friendly warning to the guys: To the extent that the babe factor is real, you might want to exercise some discretion in your Palin-ogling, lest you end up like this guy.

Seriously, this writer does find a bit distressing -- as, indeed, many Democrats must-the American electorate's extreme emphasis (as the Palin-Clinton figures demonstrate) on a candidate's personal characteristics over his, and his party's ideology.