Poll: Palin Top GOP Pick For 2012

A new Zogby poll shows that despite her divisiveness and the anger directed her way by Republican campaign aides after the election, Sarah Palin is still Republicans' preferred 2012 candidate:

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is the slight favorite of Republican voters as the best candidate the party could run for President in 2012. When all voters are asked that questions, Palin falls into a three-way tie with Mitt Romney and Bobby Jindal.

...

Palin's strength is with all conservatives, conservative religious voters and gun owners. Among Republicans, she gets the support of 30% of Born-Again Christians, 32% of weekly churchgoers, 34% of National Rifle Association members, 28% of current gun owners and 29% of self-identified conservatives. More GOP support comes from 32% of blue collar workers, 30% who shop weekly at Wal-Mart, 28% of NASCAR fans and 25% of both those with children under 17 and those with family members in the military. She scores lower among GOP voters ages 18-29, with 15%.

Twenty-four percent of Republican respondents chose Palin, compared with eighteen percent for Romney and sixteen percent for Jindal. When all voters were polled, each candidate took about thirteen percent of respondents.

The poll also finds that Mike Huckabee will have a hard time beating Palin among the base:

Palin looks to be stealing Huckabee's thunder among Republican religious conservatives and working class voters. Huckabee is an ordained Southern Baptist minister, and his highest GOP totals still come from Born-Again Christians (15%) and weekly churchgoers (18%), but those numbers are about half of those drawn by Palin. Despite his populist economic message, he wins only 10% of blue collar Republicans.

Read the full results here.

Comments

[Candyx]

republicans are just as lost as we thought if they want this no nothing to be the leader of their party then i bid them farewell forever!

[sheikwil4]

So they are ready to lose again in 2012.

[hmmmmm]

c'mon chant it with me now. . .

RUN SARAH RUN. . .. RUN SARAH RUN. . .. RUN SARAH RUN.

[veteran1964]

Can I get back to ya on that?

[veteran1964]

I'll find it and bring it to ya1

[metamyelocyte]

for the life of me, i can't figure out what is so alluring about this woman to the republicans. you'd think that they'd want to put in the heaviest hitter they have--or potentially will have, considering they have a few years to prepare for the next election--in the forefront, but instead they keep pushing this incapable twit to the center of it all.

i would say that it doesn't matter to me, since i'm a liberal, but it does matter to me because i don't want to have to hear the GOP singing her praises for the next 4 years and talking about how she's such a force to be reckoned with when nothing could be further from the truth.

[lvogt]

It was either Time or Newsweek last week that showed a color-coded map indicating life expectancy in the US. The area with the shortest life-span coincided exactly with another map showing who voted more Republican this year than in 2004. It's a narrow crescent running down Appalachia across Kentucky, through Missisippi and westward to Northern Texas. This area also has the most obesity. This is the stronghold of Christian social conservatism and Palin support. It's a land of bad choices I call the Crescent of Ignorance.

[cricketchorus]

It is unbelievable, isn't it? I would bet they are also some of the most uneducated, too. These are the people most in need of social services..­...

[Whiplash]

Well said!

[cricketchorus]

I think the Crescent of Ignorance is waxing towards Florida. Check out Jeb Bush.

[be4obamain09]

give me a break, so you're saying after 4 years of a successful president Obama, we would throw all that away for Palin.

dont make me laugh, when people see their life is better under Obama and they have less problems and more money in their pockets there is no way Palin can come in take Obama out.

BO in 2012 - 2016

[gayinmt]

OK. Can someone explain this to me. She's completely unheard of. Then she's on the national scene for like two months, and did not do a very good job of that. She's proved herself to be unintelligent and nonsensical when she speaks. She's very divisive and apparently a hatemonger as well. How could anybody see her as presidential material? I mean seriously WTF? I would prefer a real answer. Not this "republicans are dumb" line of thinking. There has to be one good reason these people want her to run.

[metamyelocyte]

i should have read your post first before typing out my tirade, since you pretty much read my mind.

[RogHol]

No, there is no good reason exept simple stupidity or maybe identifica­tion...
Anyway, its 33% of GOPs right?
That means 15% of the US voting population­...
That also means an destroyed GOP because she is so divisive..­.
Well, thats inject a sense of hopefulness in me....

[cricketchorus]

She is the Paris Hilton of politics. I know, WTF.

[Phoebe917]

i occasionally troll the right wing blog sites and i have to tell you the christian right LOVES this woman. and it is based on three basic issues; gay marriage, abortion, and gun rights. they totally disregard anything negative about her as being lies being told by the "liberal media". it is absolutely amazing as well as disturbing. check one out.

[gvc]

(1) Zogby online polls are worthless

(2) A poll a this time is a name recognition contest. I'm surprised Palin's number are so low.

(3) Jindal is far more dangerous to the left than Palin.

[Choicelady]

...at least until he opens his mouth. They are the perfect team (save for her inherent xenophobia that would make running WITH him difficult) and should let it all hang out. They are in this to promote the End Times, Second Coming, Third Wave - however you want to express it. I'd love to see them together trying to promise a better future while they're privately praying there isn't one at all.

[gvc]

He managed to feign rationality long enough to win a Rhodes scholarship and graduate from Oxford. That's even longer (but not by much) than a presidential election.

[JoeSausage]

Jindal and Huckabee can play the "aw shucks" card all they like, but the Center will see them for the intolerant hate-mongers they really are. This past election cycle showed us that the Center isn't tilting right at all. That's just more Republican talking points. The Right needs to stop promoting hate and intolerance if thety ever expect to regain some middle ground. Hate and Intolerance have had their day in the sun.

[donbrown]

All Progressives should hope this comes to pass. It would put a stake in the heart of the Republican Party for good.

[Freesia2]

And this Independent, between now and then, will vote for nothing Republican on down ticket. If the party is determined to be the Dumb As A Stump Party, then they've chosen a perfect Poster Girl. Palin is a con artist, and she's the GOP. So the GOP = fraud. That was easy math.

[RiggsMD]

Who took this poll and who participated in it? This woman is not the face of anything coherent. Maybe 'Dizzy B*tch of the Year'!

[mimigrammy]

Give her a year. We will all be asking "Sarah Who?" Listening to Sarah Palin is like listening to someone dragging their fingernails on the chalk board. The same people who "go for" Sarah Palin are the idiots who gave us 8 years of GW Bush. Like they know a good leader when they see one?

[tomas0808]

Huckabee, Palin, Romney. Man, they sure don't have very many good candidates to choose from, do they?

[Wiserone]

I believe we all realize that if the press is so hell-bent in keeping Palin in the forefront of the news, then let's really test her ability to win whatever base she is attracting and ASK her some hard hitting questions on what is happening NOW in the world. Let's start with India and the recent developments. And, no Sarah, no matter how hard you crane your neck you won't be able to see India.

[43P04T34]

I don't think there are many people who consider themselves Republicans who can give us any kind of useful definition of what it means to be a Republican.

They're a very confused bunch of people.

[Peachswirl]

Wow... the Repubs must really want to lose again.

[RiggsMD]

She's setting the women's movement back, now women with inspiration to pursue politics will be measured by any mistake made as a Sarah Palin moment.