Poll: Palin's net favorable rating dips to -13

Republicans and GOP-leaning independents continue to rank Palin among the top three contenders in the run-up to 2012, however, with 70 percent of Republicans viewing her in a positive light in the new poll. But her support within the GOP has deteriorated from its pre-election levels, including a sharp drop in the number holding “strongly favorable” impressions of her.

And while Palin’s most avid following is still among white evangelical Protestants, a core GOP constituency, and conservatives, far fewer in these groups have “strongly favorable” opinions of her than did so last fall…

Perhaps more vexing for Palin’s national political aspirations, however, is that 57 percent of Americans say she does not understand complex issues, while 37 percent think she does, a nine-percentage-point drop from a poll conducted in September just before her debate with now-Vice President Biden. The biggest decline on the question came among Republicans, nearly four in 10 of whom now say she does not understand complex issues. That figure is 70 percent among Democrats and 58 percent among independents…

Fifty-four percent say Palin is not a strong leader; 40 percent say she is. Obama, meanwhile, is viewed as a strong leader by 71 percent in the poll. GOP women are more apt than GOP men to see Palin as a strong leader, and a slim majority of Americans consider her honest and trustworthy.