Concern about Palin grows, poll indicates

WASHINGTON, Oct. 2 (UPI) -- The U.S. public's opinion that Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is experienced enough is waning, a Washington Post-ABC News poll indicates.

Five weeks after Republican presidential candidate John McCain tapped the Alaska governor to be his running mate, six in 10 voters see her as a lacking the experience to be an effective president, and 1/3 of those polled said they would be less likely to vote for McCain because of her, results from poll released Thursday indicated.

A month ago, voters rated Palin as highly as they did McCain or his Democratic challenger, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois.

In the latest Washington Post-ABC poll, Palin's experience, coupled with concerns about McCain's age, is most troubling for voters. About half of all voters said they were uncomfortable with McCain's being 72 if he takes office in January, and 85 percent of those voters said they didn't think Palin has the experience to be president.

The Post-ABC poll was conducted by telephone Saturday through Monday with a random sample of adults, including 1,070 registered voters. The overall margin of sampling error is 3 percentage points.