Poll Brings Bad News for Sarah Palin, But She Heads to Another Pro-Life Event
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
February 11, 2010
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — Sarah Palin, the former governor who is considered one of the top potential Republican presidential candidates in 2012, got a bit of bad news in a poll announced on her birthday today. Despite the news, Palin is headed to Arizona to connect with pro-life advocates as she has done at other events.
A new ABC News/Washington Post poll out today finds 71 percent of Americans say Palin is not qualified to become president while 26 percent say she is qualified.
The problem for Palin is her numbers are going in the wrong direction, as the 26 percent figure represents a 12 percent drop from an ABC News/Washington Post poll from November.
The results mirror a November CNN poll with 28 percent of Americans saying Palin is qualified and 70 percent saying she is not.
Another problem is the new poll also shows even a majority of Republicans now view Palin as not qualified to become president.
The new ABC/post survey found Palin’s favorable rating ahead of her qualification score as 37 percent of Americans have a favorable view of her while 55 percent have an unfavorable one.
To bring her numbers up in time for a potential challenge against pro-abortion President Barack Obama, Palin needs to reconnect with voters and earn their trust. As she has at pro-life events in Wisconsin and Indiana already, Palin will head to Arizona to connect with pro-life advocates at an event sponsored by the Center for Arizona Policy.
Palin will be the keynote speaker for the 2010 CAP Family Dinner on April 24.
"Sarah Palin is a trailblazer who understands the challenge of overcoming adversity on both a personal and professional level," the group told LifeNews.com.
"Rising from small-town origins to become a dominant figure on the national scene, she served as the first female governor of Alaska and was the first Republican woman nominated for vice- president. Palin is a fearless, resilient, and independent voice who stands firm by the principles and values for which she holds dear," CAP added.
Palin will headline a pro-life rally in Ohio this coming March. Her appearance on behalf of Ohio Right to Life will mark her third appearance at a major pro-life event since 2008, when she ran with John McCain against pro-abortion candidate Barack Obama.
In November, Palin rallied thousands of pro-life advocates at a gala event sponsored by Wisconsin Right to Life. There, she urged strong support for the pro-life position on abortion and end-of-life issues.
Palin told the pro-life advocates that the same ideology that brought abortion on demand and 50 million abortions is bringing discrimination against the elderly and disabled.
She worries that if some lawmakers have a mindset that says unborn children are expendable “perhaps the same mind-set applies to other persons.”
“What may they feel about an elderly person who doesn’t have a whole lot of productive years left,” Palin asked the approximately 5,000 people who attended.
“In order to save government money, government health care has to be rationed… [so] than this elderly person that perhaps could be seen as costing taxpayers to pay for a non-productive life? Do you think our elderly will be first in line for limited health care?" Palin asked.
“And what about the child who perhaps isn’t deemed normal or perfect per someone’s subjective measure of their use or questionable purpose in the eyes of a panel of bureaucrats making our healthcare decisions for us,” she continued.
Before that, in April, Palin appeared at what is billed as the largest pro-life banquet in the nation in Evansville, Indiana.
She captured the attention of nearly 3,000 pro-life advocates in a speech that was the first major public event during 2009 featuring her.
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