Going For The Gut

by digby

I can’t honestly say that I’m prescient about much of anything, but I have said from the day she was nominated that her attitude toward animals was a serious weak point for Palin. It wasn’t about regular All American hunting. This was about her not caring if the polar bears drown and supporting aerial wolf hunting, which takes her way into the outer boundaries of the anti-environmental and gun culture. She is far from being mainstream on a whole host of issues, but this is one that creates a visceral, emotional reaction and shows just how extreme she really is.

It looks like that disturbing wolf hunting ad moves voters:

A new national focus group among 312 self-reported Democrats, Republicans and Independents, revealed that after viewing a new ad by the Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund regarding “Palin’s Wildlife Record”, there was moderate movement among all parties toward Barack Obama.

The study was conducted by HCD Research and the Muhlenberg College Institute of Public Opinion (MCIPO) on September 15, to obtain Americans’ perceptions of a new ad which questions Governor Sarah Palin’s record in regard to wildlife in Alaska.

“The ad which focuses on Governor Palin’s record regarding the treatment of wildlife in Alaska seemed to strike a chord with voters,” commented Glenn Kessler, president and CEO, HCD Research. “The recent ads from both parties have had little impact among voters. This is the first ad in over a month that seems to have broken through,” he added.

Among the study findings:

The ad earned Barack Obama a Political Communications Impact Score (PCIS) of 29.4 and John McCain received a score of 5.9, resulting in a net score of 23.5 for Barack Obama. The scores can be compared to a mean score of 9.3 for previously tested Obama ads and 7.5 for previously tested McCain ads. To date, the total mean score for all previously tested ads is 8.3

The most prevalent emotional responses reported from voters were “angry” and “disturbed” after viewing the ad.

It’s one thing to be a frontier gal who hunts moose in Alaska for food. But most people instinctively get that there’s something fundamentally wrong with this:

.