Poll: D.C. elites down on Palin

WASHINGTON, Dec. 15 (UPI) -- A huge majority of Washington's insiders say Sarah Palin, the 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate, isn't qualified to be president, a Politico poll indicates.

Eight-six percent of respondents considered members of the political establishment said they don't think Palin is qualified to hold the office, compared to 64 percent of the general public, results of the Politico poll released Wednesday said.

Eleven percent of political establishment respondents in Washington said they believe Palin is qualified to be president, compared to 23 percent of the general public, the survey indicated.

In addition, 79 percent of those classified as Washington elites said they think Palin is a "negative influence in national politics" while 15 percent said they thought she was "a breath of fresh air," Politico said.

"Palin is a populist-oriented phenomenon drawn heavily from lower middle-class voters, but she also deliberately comes off as anti-intellectual and anti-Washington, so it is no surprise she does not play in the Beltway," said Mark Penn, chief executive officer of the Penn Schoen Berland polling firm that conducted the survey. "Elites almost everywhere are turned off by her and some of the very things she does that attracts her core support."

The "Power and the People" poll is based on two Internet surveys conducted Dec. 3-8, Politico said. For the general population data, 1,000 people were surveyed nationwide with a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points. Also polled were 225 Washington elites and the margin of error is 6.53 percentage points.