Remember back when there was talk of Hillary Clinton running for president in 2008, and news reports and punditry routinely suggested she was just too unpopular, which supposedly made her unelectable?

And remember how the media likes to pretend that Sarah Palin is popular?

Check out this chart from political scientist Brendan Nyhan:

Nyhan describes Palin as “having what seem to be unprecedented negatives among an early-stage presidential candidate.”

Unprecedented negatives.

So maybe it's time to stop describing her as popular or a “phenomenon”? Please?