We wouldn't want to give the top conservative intellectuals too much credit, but the establishment Republicans' endless trashing of Sarah Palin may be doing the trick. A new Washington Post-ABC News poll shows that her usually astronomical favorability rating among Republicans is crashing. Even Mitt Romney has a higher rating. And literally no one on Earth likes Mitt Romney!

Palin's favorability among Republicans — not support for a presidential candidacy; but merely whether they like her — has usually been in the 70s or 80s, well above other prominent party members. But now it's in the 50s, right down there with the other sad sacks:

The former vice presidential candidate scores a 58 percent favorable rating, close to the 61 percent for former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee and 60 percent for former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, and better than the 55 percent that onetime House speaker Newt Gingrich (Ga.) received.

But Palin's unfavorable numbers are significantly higher than they are for any of these possible competitors. Fully 37 percent of all Republicans and GOP-leaning independents now hold a negative view of her, a new high.

So now intensity of support among primary voters, the only reason a Sarah Palin presidential candidacy has been taken with the least bit of seriousness, isn't much of a factor anymore. They prefer Mitt Romney, an abortion-loving plastic liberal from Taxachusetts, more than Sarah Palin.

[Image via AP]