Sarah Palin 'Going Rogue' to the White House? Polls say no.

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Sarah Palin 'Going Rogue' to the White House? Polls say no.

With her book, 'Going Rogue,' released today, Sarah Palin is red meat to the far right. But Palin's poll numbers have slid significantly since she quit as Alaska governor.

Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Newscom

People walk by a window display of "Going Rogue: an American Life", by Sarah Palin, in New York Tuesday as it hit stores in the US.

By Peter Grier Staff writer

Nov. 17, 2009, 4:11 p.m. ET | Washington

Here鈥檚 one big reason why Sarah Palin may not run for president in 2012: Her poll numbers are awful.

It鈥檚 possible for determined politicians to reverse poor ratings of public opinion. Hillary Clinton has done it, to a certain degree. And some experts say Ms. Palin鈥檚 current situation is similar to that faced by Secretary of State Clinton in the past.

But, still 鈥� 66 percent of respondents to a CBS News survey released Monday said they did not want Sarah Palin to run for the White House in 2012.

Seventy percent of respondents to a CNN/Opinion Research poll said Palin is not qualified to be president.

And for Palin, the trend is going the wrong way. As Pollster.com鈥檚 , her numbers have slid significantly this year, particularly following her resignation from Alaska鈥檚 governorship in July.

鈥淧erceptions of Palin鈥檚 qualifications for the presidency are shockingly low for a former presidential/VP nominee -- there鈥檚 been no one comparable to her since Dan Quayle,鈥� wrote Brendan Nyhan, an assistant professor of government at Dartmouth, in a recent Pollster.com .

Palin continues to be a highly polarizing figure. Republicans are much less dismissive of her qualifications than Democrats or independents.

In the CBS survey released this week, 43 percent of GOP respondents said Palin would have the ability to be an effective President. But only 11 percent of Democrats and 29 percent of independents agreed.

Some see opportunity for Palin among independents. Matthew Continetti, associate editor of The Weekly Standard and author of the new book 鈥淭he Persecution of Sarah Palin,鈥� noted in a recent op-ed that Palin鈥檚 rating among independents is 48 percent unfavorable, and 41 percent favorable, according to Gallup.

鈥淣ot good, but insurmountable. Flip those percentages, and they could be serving moose burgers in the White House in 2013,鈥� in the Wall Street Journal.

But given the image of Palin already cemented in much of the US public鈥檚 mind, flipping that percentage might be very difficult.

Furthermore, Palin right now is running behind both Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee in a head-to-head matchups, according to an October Rasmussen survey.

That in and of itself is not a huge deal, given the length of time before primaries begin. But Romney and Huckabee are from very different parts of the GOP coalition, notes Tom Schaller.

The fact that both now lead her means 鈥淧alin鈥檚 ideological appeal is easily dominated because it is wide but not deep on the far right and neither wide nor deep among the party鈥檚 institutional and more mainstream elements,鈥� on the popular polling blog FiveThirtyEight.

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