A new national survey from Public Policy Polling (D) finds that an overwhelming majority of Americans do not think Sarah Palin is qualified to be president — but a significant number of those people would still vote for her against Barack Obama.
The poll asked “Do you think Sarah Palin is or is not qualified to serve as President?” The answer was only 30% qualified, 59% not qualified, 11% undecided. However, in a direct match-up against President Obama, Palin attracts 43% of the vote to Obama’s 50%. This means that there are 13% of Americans who either do not think Palin is qualified to be president, or are undecided on the matter, and would nevertheless vote for her.
“I guess there’s easy spin for both sides on that number,” writes PPP communications director Tom Jensen. “From my perspective it’s astounding that such a significant portion of Americans are willing to vote for someone they don’t think is qualified- this is the White House, not American Idol. But I guess Republicans could make the argument that Obama’s just so bad that any Republican would be better than him, whether they consider that Republican to be qualified or not.”
In the other match-ups for 2012, Obama leads Mike Huckabee by 46%-43%, leads the lesser-known John Thune by 46%-28%, and edges out Mitt Romney by 45%-43%.
In last month’s PPP numbers, Huckabee actually edged out Obama by 45%-44%, Obama led Palin by 49%-41%, and Obama had a 44%-42% lead over Romney. Thune was not tested.
