So close Andrew, so close.

We've been mocking Malcolm for months now because the former Laura Bush flack and full-time Sarah Palin cheerleader writes incessantly about Palin and about polling but rarely, rarely, has the nerve to connect the two dots and concede that Palin's polling numbers are a wreck. Malcolm though, does find all kinds of time and space to post endlessly about how supposedly awful and catastrophic Obama's polling numbers are. (For the record, Obama is right about where Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton were at this point of their first terms.)

The good news is Malcolm this week almost came clean and leveled with his right-wing readers about how poll after poll after poll after poll shows Palin is anchored down by sky-high unfavorable ratings. But in the end, Malcolm couldn't bring himself to spell that out in clear language or provide any links for readers to follow.

This is all the courage Malcolm could muster this week:

Polls have consistently shown American voters dubious that the 46-year-old ex-governor and VP candidate is qualified to sit in the Oval Office.

Whatever you say Andrew. Of course, what recent polls show is not that voters are simply “dubious” about Palin's qualifications. What the polls have shown quite clearly is that a solid plurality of people don't like Sarah Palin. Period. That, plus she loses when matched up against Obama in a hypothetical 2012 contest. But other than that, her numbers are fine.

Still, Malcolm just couldn't bring himself to admit those salient facts.