Polls: At Least 60 Percent Of Voters Think Palin Unqualified For 2012

November 16, 2009 3:34 p.m. EST

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - Polls released on Monday marking the release of the memoir of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin show that only about a quarter of Americans believe the 2008 vice presidential Republican nominee is qualified to be commander-in-chief.

Palin's book, "Going Rogue: An American Life," hits shelves this week. The former governor, who resigned this year, also begins her book tour with interviews on Oprah and Barabara Walters.

Only 28 percent of voters think Palin is qualified to serve as president and a full 70 percent believe she is not qualified, according to a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey. However, 54 percent of Republicans think she has the credentials to lead the nation. Among independents, only 29 percent say she is ready to be president.

Palin trails in last place among five potential White House contenders included in the poll. About half of all voters believe former Massachussetts is qualified, while 43 percent think the same of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee. Among Republicans, 63 percent think that Romney and Huckabee are qualified.

Topping the survey is Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, with 67 percent of Americans saying she is qualified for the job of president. Vice President Joe Biden trails his fellow Democrat with 50 percent.

A Washington Post-ABC News poll said the same day that 60 percent of all voters judge Palin to be unqualified for the White House. But among members of the GOP, 61 percent believe she is fit to serve, as do 37 percent of independents.

Fifty-two percent have an unfavorable view of the former governor. Among Republicans, she has a 76 percent favorable rating.

The 45-year-old Palin resigned on July 26, a year and a half before her first term as governor ended, prompting heightened  speculation that she plans to run for the White House in 2012.

At the time, she had explained that her decision -- in what some observers had described as a "rambling" statement -- was because the 15 ethics complaints against her, which were all dismissed, was taking up state resources.

Steve Schmidt, the chief campaign strategist of the 2008 McCain campaign, had said in a conference last month that 2012 would be catastrophic for the Republican Party if Palin were chosen as the presidential nominee.

Palin has been a vocal critic of Obama's healthcare agenda, popularly criticizing as the establishment of a "death panel" through a provision in the House Democratic reform proposal that seeks to include end-of-life services such as counseling and hospice care in Medicare coverage for seniors.

During her time as vice presidential nominee, she was also criticized for comments such saying she has foreign policy experience because her state is beside Russia, that the vice president is "in charge" of the Senate, and that she likes to visit "pro-America areas" of the country like North Carolina.

The first woman vice presidential candidate of the GOP, she drew large crowds at rallies and took up much of the media coverage that had been largely devoted to then-Sen. Barack Obama, but her relative lack of political experience and a slew of negative reports ostensibly pushed the McCain campaign to keep her away from the press.

A virtual unknown in the national arena until she was named to the ticket in August 2008, Palin is a self-confessed hockey mom who got her first passport only in 2007 and who had never met a foreign leader until McCain introduced her to foreign dignitaries last year at the United Nations in New York. She was reported as having "gone rogue" when she went against the McCain campaign's talking points and responded to accusations about campaign money being spent for her clothes.