Poll: Virginia Voters Prefer Palin to Obama

Buried inside the new Public Policy Polling survey of Virginia are two questions: How would voters react if President Obama campaigned for a Democratic candidate, and how would they react if former Gov. Sarah Palin (R-Alaska) campaigned for the Republican?

The answer, in a state that voted 53-46 for Barack Obama in last year’s election? More people would go for Palin’s candidate, although most voters would prefer that neither politician weigh in. By a 35-26 margin, voters say they’d be less likely to support a Republican candidate if Palin campaigned for him. But by a 37-14 margin, voters say they’d be less likely to support the Democrat if Obama campaigned for him.

This comes in a poll that finds dramatically lower Democratic enthusiasm for the 2009 elections, and PPP president Dean Debnam explains that Democratic gubernatorial candidate Creigh Deeds is lagging because the voters activated to vote for Obama in 2008 were not paying attention to this race. “Somewhat counter intuitively Barack Obama’s poor numbers are exactly why Creigh Deeds needs the President to campaign for him,” said Debnam.