Thursday, February 11, 2010

New Poll Finds Sarah Palin Not Presidential Material With High Unfavorables

ABC News/Washington Post ran a poll over the past week, and the results are not what Sarah Palin would like to hear if she actually had any intention of running for President in 2012.

Most Americans don't think she's President material, and 55% have an unfavorable review.
Palin's own ratings are weaker, apparently hurt rather than helped by her return to the spotlight. Fifty-five percent of Americans see her unfavorably, the most basic measure of a public figure's popularity, and 71 percent believe she's not qualified to serve as president, a position she said Sunday she'll consider seeking. Both negatives are at new highs.

Palin's more popular in her own party -- 69 percent of Republicans see her favorably. But far fewer, 37 percent, do so "strongly." (By contrast, in an ABC/Post poll last month, 70 percent of Democrats had a strongly favorable opinion of Barack Obama.) More problematic for Palin is that even in her own party 52 percent think she's not qualified for the presidency -- up by 16 points from an ABC/Post poll in November, shortly before the publication of her memoir, in which she criticizes the strategy of the 2008 Republican presidential campaign.

Far more Americans see Palin strongly unfavorably, 38 percent, than strongly favorably, 18 percent. Among independents -- swing voters in national politics -- just 36 percent see her favorably overall, vs. 53 percent unfavorably, and only 29 percent think she's qualified for the presidency.

The poll also looked at the Tea Party movement, and here too the Tea Party wasn't exactly viewed favorably even though some folks did agree with the issues raised by the Party.

One problem with the poll is the geographic distribution and political affiliations of those polled was not included in the release. I can't tell whether this is a representative sample, or whether this is skewed because of some bias within the poll. Still, the results show that Palin would have a tremendous hurdle to overcome in gaining the nomination for the GOP, as the poll seems to indicate significant resistance to Palin within the GOP.

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