CNN poll: 71% say Palin’s unqualified to be president

I was planning to skip this, but Conservatives 4 Palin promised their readers this morning that the “deeply tiresome Allahpundit” would be launching into an anti-Palin tirade about it any minute over at Hot Air.

How could I let them down?

Republicans appear split, with 52 percent saying she’s qualified and 47 percent disagreeing with that view.

The poll indicates that about half of the country, 51 percent, has an unfavorable view of Palin, with 42 percent seeing her in a positive light. Nearly two-thirds of those questioned say Palin’s not a typical politician, and feel she’s a good role model for women. Fifty-six percent add that Palin cares about people, and a similar amount think she’s honest and trustworthy. But the survey indicates Americans are split over whether Palin shares their values, agrees with them on the issues, or if she’s a strong leader.

“Sarah Palin has one advantage that many past Republican candidates have not shared – Americans think she cares about people like them,” says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. “But her biggest Achilles heel is the number who think she is not qualified to be President. Those numbers are similar to what Dan Quayle got in 1993, when only 23 percent thought he was ready for the White House.”

C4P notes that, at 42/51, her approval rating’s up three points since the last CNN poll; in fact, if you use that PPP poll from last week as a yardstick, it’s actually up six points. An early sign of a rebound in her favorables as the book builds buzz, perhaps? As also noted by C4P, she’s got great personal numbers:

The left might despise her but most of America doesn’t — which makes that 71 percent figure all the more jarring. Note, too, that she’s +29 on the question of whether she’s a good role model for women, which is fascinating given that she typically polls badly with women overall. The public clearly admires her, and rightly so, but there’s also clearly a deep, deep vein of skepticism about her qualifications if they’re cracking 70 percent on the presidential question while giving her a solid thumbs up on personal attributes. (Note that, at 52/47, even the split among Republicans on whether she’s qualified is within the margin of error.) As for C4P’s lament about CNN finding the headline it wanted to find within the data, are they really arguing that a three-point gain in favorables should have been the lede for this story rather than the fact that last year’s GOP VP nominee — and current darling of the conservative base — isn’t far from having three-quarters of the population declaring her unqualified? That’s a striking amount of consensus in an age when consensus is hard to come by.

While we’re on the subject, here’s the video of America’s father/parasite of the year telling CBS he has “huge” dirt on his son’s grandmother but isn’t ready to use it to destroy his extended family just yet. You’ll be pleased to know that Sarahcuda issued a statement laying him out this afternoon. The takeaway line: “Consider the source of the most recent attention-getting lies – those who would sell their body for money reflect a desperate need for attention and are likely to say and do anything for even more attention.”

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