Glenn Beck is a “lying sack of dog mess.”

Sarah Palin has been credited with telling the biggest lie of 2009 when she suggested that Trig would be evaluated by the President’s “Death Panels.”  Fortunately “numbers” are not subject to “misreporting.” They are what they are. The “numbers” that reflect the popularity of Beck and Palin, and their concurrent decline, convey a consistent story.

Palin’s poll numbers have been in a steep decline, and are currently the lowest ever. In March of 2011 a Washington Post/ABC poll showed that only 58% of Republicans and GOP-leaning independents, think highly of Palin. This represents a drop of 30% from her favorability ratings during the 2008 campaign of 88%. Palin’s “unfavorable” numbers are also illustrative of her decline in popularity, with 37 % of all Republicans and GOP-leaning independents now holding a negative view of her. During the same period Glenn Beck’s favor-ability ratings and viewer-ship suffered a dramatic decline. In 2009 at least 20 advertisers pulled their ads from Glenn Beck’s Fox News program, after the right-wing host denounced President Obama, as a “racist” who “has a deep-seated hatred for white people.” The advertisers dropping their ads from Beck’s show, include the nation’s largest retailer, Wal-Mart, ConAgra, GEICO, Lawyers.com, Men’s Wearhouse, Procter & Gamble, Progressive Insurance, RadioShack, Roche, SC Johnson, Sanofi-Aventis, Sargento, State Farm Insurance, Allergan, Ally Bank, Best Buy, Broadview Security, CVS, Re-Bath and Travelocity.

Beck’s loss of advertisers was only the beginning of his problems. His ratings and reputation have been in free fall. His show has lost more than one million viewers over the course of the past year, falling from an average of 2.9 million in January 2010 to 1.8 million in January 2011. He now ranks fifth among Fox’s six weekday talk hosts. “It’s hard to gain a million viewers,” says Eric Boehlert, who follows Beck’s shows for the liberal media watchdog group Media Matters, “but it’s really hard to lose a million viewers.” By 2011 over 300 companies, including Proctor & Gamble, UPS, and Coca-Cola had stopped all advertising on Beck’s show.

Hence, it would come as no surprise to learn that Beck and Fox have announced the end of Beck’s show. The numbers don’t lie. But the numbers don’t tell us WHY Beck lost popularity. Consider the possibility that Beck’s decline in popularity was a direct result of his relationship to Sarah Palin. Remember just how tight Beck and Palin have been over the last two years:

1. Palin wrote about Beck in Time Magazine’s article identifying the 100 “most influential people.” Palin said:

“Who’d have thought a history buff with a quirky sense of humor and a chalkboard could make for such riveting television?”

With words such as “amazing” and “patriotic,” she writes Beck “inspires others to learn and respect our nation’s history.

2. Beck called Palin “One Hot Grandma.

3. Beck appeared with Palin in Alaska for a rally on Sept. 11. Palin introduced Beck and explained “He could be anywhere on the Earth today, and he chose Alaska!” Palin sat next to Beck for a three-hour show that resembled a tent revival more than a political forum.

4. Beck was given the opportunity to conduct the first televised interview of Palin after the 2008 election. In the hour long interview, with the Statute of Liberty in the background, Beck shed tears as he said: “We had something in common, and I called her up because I just was moved by the way she reacted to the birth of her child. She was real. I for once didn’t feel so alone. I didn’t feel surrounded by others, and neither did she. Her approval rating as governor at the time was about 90 percent. This is before the media circus, before all the political bull-crap. Sarah Palin was just a mom of five doing a job that needed to be done. She was my kind of leader.”

5. Beck and Palin were so tight that there was even a suggestion that they might be on the same ticket in 2012.

6. Beck and Palin were aligned at the Restoring Honor Rally.

7. Beck and Palin teamed up in Tulsa Oklahoma and Kansas City for the “Taking Our Country Back” rallies. If the rallies had been successful 10 more rallies were contemplated.  I guess they weren’t “successful.”

Thus, it is incontrovertible that Beck aligned himself with Palin. Conservatives, like George Bush, who felt Palin was “unfit” would lose respect for Beck as they lost respect for Palin. It would be hard for Beck to pretend that he didn’t notice as Palin demonstrated her total lack of understanding of our “North Korean Allies” on his show.   Even those conservatives who supported Palin might have taken offense by Beck’s apparent use of Palin to boost his ratings and popularity. When Beck exclaimed “bull crap”as Palin identified “all of them” as her favorite founding father in his interview in Jan. of 2010, Beck displayed his lack of respect for Sarah Palin.

Beck and Roger Ailes of Fox have announced that Beck will be leaving his show later this year.  Mr. Ailes himself has previously indicated his displeasure with Palin. He told her to “Lie low,” with regard to the Gabrielle Giffords shooting. “There’s no need to inject yourself into the story.” Palin received the same advice from her lawyer and other confidantes. Of course, she didn’t follow that advice.   Ailes was not happy.

Now Glenn Beck is trying hard to distance himself from Palin. He has said that he doesn’t see Palin running for president and that “ she has done some damage to her political brand.” “Sarah Palin, I don’t think, wants to run for president.” Beck went on to explain that Palin “ made a mistake by selling her personal story in her first book after leaving the governor’s office, rather than demonstrating some policy credentials. She should have come out with that first book, and it should have been deep policy.” “It should have shown that, yes, she knows where Russia is. She didn’t help herself by doing some things to shore herself up.”   Beck has gone so far as to actually endorse Michele Bachmann.

Beck has reacted to his dismissal from Fox quickly by attempting to distance himself from Palin. It certainly appears that he attributes his loss of popularity to his alignment with Sarah Palin. If his immediate efforts to distance himself from Palin don’t work, he may have to resort to the Vicks.

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