Washington (CNN) – Sarah Palin has erased her drop in the polls that followed her resignation as Alaska governor, according to new national survey.
But when it comes to opinions of Palin, a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll released Monday suggests a partisan divide and a gender gap.
The survey indicates that Americans are split on Palin, with 46 percent saying they have a favorable opinion of her and an equal amount saying they have an unfavorable view of last year’s Republican vice presidential nominee.
Palin resigned as Alaska governor in July, with a year and a half left in her first term. She attributed the decision to tremendous pressure, time and the financial burden of a litany of ethics complaints in the past several months, complaints Palin said were without merit and took away from the job she wanted to do for Alaskans.
Following her resignation, Palin’s favorable rating dropped to 39 percent in CNN polling, but her popularity is now back to the same level it was before she stepped down. The former governor is in the middle of a national tour for her best selling book, “Going Rogue: An American Life.”
Eight out of ten Republicans questioned the survey have a favorable opinion of Palin, with more than seven in ten Democrats view her unfavorably. Independents are evenly divided on Palin. According to the poll, 51 percent of men see her in a positive light, with an nearly equal amount of women view Palin in a negative way.
“The gender gap on Palin is not simply a function of the fact that women tend to identify with the Democratic party more than men do,” says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. “Even within GOP circles, Republican men like Palin more than Republican women do. John McCain put Palin on his ticket in 2008 to appeal to female voters, but it looks like men are a natural constituency for her.”
How does the first female vice-presidential major party candidate in more than two decades compare to recent vice presidents?
“Palin is still not as popular Al Gore and remains more unpopular than Joe Biden, but her favorable rating is much higher than Dick Cheney’s,” adds Holland.
Palin’s book tour brought her to Iowa on Sunday. With the former Alaska governor considered a possible contender for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination, attention has been sparked by her visit to Iowa, site of the first event on the presidential calendar. Long lines of people have waited hours to see Palin during many stops of her nearly month long book tour.
The CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll was conducted December 2-3, with 1,041 adult Americans questioned by telephone. The survey’s overall sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.
From CNN Deputy Political Director Paul Steinhauser
