Palin an anchor around McCain’s neck

It seems the bloom is off the Palin rose:

With the vice presidential candidates set to square off today in their only scheduled debate, public assessments of Sarah Palin’s readiness have plummeted, and she may now be a drag on the Republican ticket among key voter groups, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

Tonight’s heavily anticipated debate comes just five weeks after the popular Alaska governor entered the national spotlight as Sen. John McCain’s surprise pick to be his running mate. Though she initially transformed the race with her energizing presence and a fiery convention speech, Palin is now a much less positive force: Six in 10 voters see her as lacking the experience to be an effective president, and a third are now less likely to vote for McCain because of her.

Just the other day, with the kind of foresight that led him to declare the economy “fundamentally sound” just before a market collapse, McCain insisted “I think the American people have overwhelmingly shown their approval” for Palin, excepting the “Georgetown cocktail party” circuit.

Either McCain is once again badly out of touch or the Georgetown party circuit has become rather vast.