As I predicted, the majority of Americans aren’t going to accept that a woman who sought the vice presidency and talks constantly about the good she’s done for Alaska resigned from her first term because of unfair attacks on her family or because she thought it was best for her state. They see the premature resignation for what it is: Clearing the way for her political ambitions.

Just 24 percent of those accept Palin’s explanation that she resigned because it was the right thing to do for Alaska. More than twice that percentage – 52 percent – cited her political ambition as the reason for her resignation. An additional 14 percent said they don’t know the reason.

Even Republicans are skeptical of the explanation, with a higher percentage saying Palin resigned for her political career (36 percent) than saying she did so for Alaska (31 percent)…

Thirty-nine percent of those surveyed expect Palin to run for president in 2012, while 43 percent say she will not. If she runs, she’ll likely face widespread skepticism: As CBS News revealed Monday morning, just 22 percent say Palin has the ability to be an effective president. Sixty-five percent say she does not.

You know what didn’t help that perception of ill-preparedness? Failing to even complete her first term as governor, leaving her total executive experience with some time as a mayor of Wassilla and a few months as governor of a state with 686,000 residents. Even Barack Obama, as ill-prepared as he was, only left the U.S. Senate upon his election to higher office by the majority of Americans, including the people who elected him to his previous post.

Her personal political career is essentially over, as I’ve said many times since her resignation. She might succeed in helping raise funds and rally support for conservative candidates, but Americans aren’t going to entrust the nuclear launch codes to an individual who didn’t even complete her first term as governor in order to pursue higher office three years from now.