Sarah Palin's Support For Potential Presidential Campaign Slipping: Poll

BOSTON (Reuters) - Mike Huckabee leads a list of potential candidates for the 2012 U.S. Republican nomination, edging out Mitt Romney, while support for Sarah Palin has slipped, according to a Gallup Poll released on Friday.

Many voters are undecided about whom to support at a time most well-known Republicans have not committed to run. The winner is expected to take on President Barack Obama in November 2012.

The survey of 1,000 Republicans and Republican-leaning independents taken March 18-22 put support for Huckabee at 19 percent against 15 percent for Romney.

Huckabee's support has been creeping up while voters backing Romney have slipped from 16 percent in February and 19 percent in November. Palin, holding at 16 percent since September, dropped to 12 percent in the latest poll.

Observers think former Massachusetts governor Romney, now on a nationwide fund-raising swing, will almost certainly announce a second run for his party's nomination after falling short in 2008 to John McCain.

Prospects are less certain for Huckabee. The former governor of Arkansas and 2008 candidate hosts a television show on Fox News. Former Alaska governor Palin also has a lucrative media career.

The poll showed that if Huckabee does not run, Palin and Romney would benefit the most. Were Huckabee to run but not Palin, his current advantage over Romney would widen.

Former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty on Monday announced an exploratory committee, the first high-profile Republican to show serious intent for 2012. He had 3 percent support in the Gallup poll, the same as a month ago.

Newt Gingrich, former U.S. House speaker, has said he could announce a run for the Republican nomination in May. He ran fourth in the Gallup poll with 10 percent support.

Former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum and Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour, who will campaign in the key early-voting state of New Hampshire next week, each captured just two percent of potential voters in the poll.

(Reporting by Ros Krasny; Editing by Jerry Norton)

Copyright 2010 Thomson Reuters. Click for Restrictions.

Comments

[deast1115]

08:31 PM on 04/11/2011

A sure winner in th presidential race would be a Trump/Palen ticket. I believe they could win the nomination, and then the race in 2012

Delores

[macohmz]

10:54 AM on 03/29/2011

Tell you what Sarah, if you go on Fox news naked you might have chance.

[RuffNReddy]

10:29 AM on 03/29/2011

Oy! Imagine if she *was* the Vice. Yikes!
How much longer would this nation put up with her mishegoss?!

Never!

[warriorwoman73]

12:31 PM on 03/30/2011

We'd in be in much worse shape than we are now if she and McCain had won the ticket - of that I have no doubt. Anyone who thinks otherwise is in serious denial.

Fanned and faved.

[oldgeek1]

10:56 AM on 03/27/2011

She is happy that they spelled her name correctly

[RitaS]

10:54 AM on 03/27/2011

Aw, poor P.... People are finally getting clued in as to how irrelevant she is....

[LeftLeanWing]

10:10 AM on 03/27/2011

Poll say RED IS NOT SARAH'S COLOR and that Bump-Its are Great for protecting a lady's head from injury from Hitting the HeadBoard.

[Botany5000]

09:58 AM on 03/27/2011

How many times can you print the same article or a variant of it,
and still say you are a journalistic endeavor?

[buddbo1]

04:04 AM on 03/27/2011

Sarah isn't interested in becoming president. Why would she? She's getting big bucks by appearing at highly paid political gigs and having her face on television. It pays her more than any political office would, and it keeps her in the spot light for more of the same. She realizes her fifthteen minutes won't last forever, so she's going for the monies !

[roger37]

11:41 PM on 03/26/2011

Bye-bye, Sarah Paycheck!

[1943frank]

11:17 PM on 03/26/2011

Sarah is the biggest joke of all time. I am glad she is not a democrat.

[tnkeating]

09:41 PM on 03/26/2011

Man how many weeks you going to run this non-story.

[Willow207]

09:15 PM on 03/26/2011

Stick the fork in...She's done!

[layman]

09:11 PM on 03/26/2011

Tumbling rating means less and less speech giving invitations. Sooner or later she will be looking for a real job in the real world when the source/ opportunities of her political theatrical drama runs dry. She might be able to go back to hunting, fishing or doing something with those ice machines.

[monte2115]

09:28 PM on 03/26/2011

Sad to say that she has probably made enough that she will never have to work again. Just seems wrong doesn't it.

[layman]

09:49 PM on 03/26/2011

on so many levels.

[Willow207]

09:05 PM on 03/26/2011

One word comes to mind:

Overexposed

[Splash of Cold Water]

02:55 AM on 03/27/2011

Underintelligent.

(I'm pretty sure I learned that word from Palin.)

[Willow207]

03:55 PM on 03/27/2011

One of those "words" from the Palin "Word Salad Dictionary"!!!!!!

[EuropeWindAndFire]

07:43 PM on 03/26/2011

Does she smile? Does she cry herself to sleep sometimes? Does she have a mom and dad that cared for her? Does she have concerns about her children? Does she know that she is not the one going all the way? Does she have a grip on reality at all? Does she have human features? This woman cannot be serious when she says things like that. She has made more international visits when she lost the '08 elections than ever before that. Who is she really? What do some people see in this woman that celebrates a certain kind of VooDooChristianity?