Political Hotsheet
July 8, 2009 1:20 PM

Polls Show Palin Retains Support

(AP Photo)
Since the moment Sarah Palin announced Friday that she is resigning as governor of Alaska, rumors have been circulating about her future. Her options may well be wide open: According to new polls, Palin’s unorthodox move doesn't seemed to have significantly diminished enthusiasm for her amongst Republicans nationwide.

A new USA Today/Gallup poll shows that 19 percent of Americans are very likely to vote for Palin for president in 2012. A whopping 72 percent of Republicans think it is at least somewhat likely that they will vote for her should she run.

"For independents and Democrats, she's already not their candidate, and with Republicans her support is not based on her record as governor of Alaska," GOP consultant Alex Castellanos told USA Today.

A new Rasmussen poll, meanwhile, finds that Palin and Mitt Romney would be the top candidates in a Republican president primary. Palin garners 24 percent of the vote while Romney takes 25 percent.

The poll also shows, however, that 21 percent of national Republican voters say that Palin is the candidate they would least likely see as the 2012 GOP nominee.

"Conservative Republicans are the least fazed by Palin’s decision to resign," the poll authors note. "Just 37% think she’s hurt her chances of winning the nomination, compared to 52% of moderate Republicans."

While Palin's resignation has garnered headlines, the USA Today/Gallup poll found that 70 percent of Americans have not changed their views on the 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee. The Rasmussen poll finds that 76 percent of Republican voters still hold a favorable view of the governor, as opposed to the 21 percent that view her unfavorably.

According to another new Rasmussen poll, 40 percent of Republican voters believe that Palin has hurt her chances of winning the nomination in 2012 while 24 percent think that her resignation will help her bid.

"In general, the higher a Republican voter’s income level and educational achievement, the more likely he or she is to think Palin’s decision to resign will hurt her bid for the GOP nomination," the poll reports.

While Palin hasn't officially announced any of her future plans, 61 percent of Republican voters think that it is at least somewhat likely that she will run for president, the Rasmussen poll finds.
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by toldyouso29 July 10, 2009 3:29 AM EDT
How odd... to only poll Republicans on Palin. Because if, as the Republicans say, over 70% of Republicans vote for her and at least 21% will not--what does that mean? Here are facts--if the number of Republicans was at their zenith of 34% of the electorate--could Palin win with ALL of their votes? Not likely.

Because it would leave 66% NOT voting for Palin. Now.. if the votes that were left could be split away from the Dems--Palin might have a chance. If 21% of Republicans will not vote for Palin, then she has almost no chance--but she could if that decreased the Republican electorate to 28% and for some reason out of the remaining 72% the majority did not vote or did not vote for Dems.

That is the take from "la la land" now..the reality: Presently, those who identify as the Republican base number about 17% of the electorate. If this holds by 2012--she will have NO chance.

If she stays stupid and airheaded, she will have NO Chance.

The reason is that Independence might not care for Dems or Republicans but they are not about to hand their country over to an idiot and let's face it, during the last interviews, Palin came across as an idiot. A charismatic, pretty idiot--but an idiot just the same. Republicans are known for towing the line and revering their "leaders" no matter who they are or what they are--most suffer from "latent messiah complex" they speak about Palin in terms of being "hot" or likeable. But really, when one has lost their job and can't afford cancer treatment--will the attractiveness or friendliness of Palin matter?

The fact is, she acts like an airhead and that is her downfall. As for her quitting her governorship--if it is to run for higher office--that is arrogant and sort of grasping. Maybe she just wants a break.

NO matter what, stupid or not--she will be interesting to watch. This does not translate into people voting for her--but it does mean that just like a train wreck--people will flock to view not only the carnage of any debates and interviews she gives (she will not be able to hide if she is a candidate or to have her interviews screened) but to also watch the amazing rationale of the people who try to love and defend her no matter how inane or stupid she appears. All of that will have people shaking their heads as they watch the show--then either stay home or vote for someone else.
Reply to this comment
by velma179 July 9, 2009 1:02 PM EDT
***This article was saved in my tabs from yesterday... and I could not let the previous post be the last word***

It's lies like tautomer [above] chooses to propagate that give all the world eyes to see what kind of people are the "goons".

These bits of propaganda have no basis in truth and that fact, by the way is verifiable! Yet people like tautomer continue to "play to the chorus" of their own small minded and deluded ilk.

It would be only sad, if it weren't so destructive to the civility of the actual debate we as Americans of differing viewpoints SHOULD continue in order to keep our beloved country strong.
Reply to this comment
by tautomer July 8, 2009 8:20 PM EDT
Most certainly Palin will not be the next Republican nominee. Rather Palin is testament to the politics of hatred and character assasination that Obama has brought to the table.

Obama has long been a disciple of Saul Alinsky, a long dead Chicagoradical thinker among who's rules of engagment was "Select a Target, Freeze It, Polarize It and Personalize It".

This, of course, is precisely what Obama's goons have done to Palin.
Reply to this comment
by velma179 July 8, 2009 7:30 PM EDT
1togolf....

What?

I think you might be referring to VP Biden as the side kick...? But you first call him a "clear and present danger" and then, "the gift that keeps on giving".

Your circular rhetoric, bereft of logic does seem familiar... hmmm... hmmmmm?
Reply to this comment
by 1togolf July 8, 2009 6:53 PM EDT
All that is to be said is " A CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER TO US IS OBAMA AND HIS SIDE KICK THE GIFT THAT KEEPS ON GIVING.
Reply to this comment
by johndevinejr July 8, 2009 6:20 PM EDT
by socalsage July 8, 2009 3:14 PM PDT
Air Head are you talking about the son of a who-e, sl0t, mother and a drunken wife beater father? Or better know as our Affirmative Action President.

What we got in the white house now is the Air Head

You are a good example of a republican. Barely literate, not particularly bright, a racist. You would make a good Palin supporter.
Please do everything you can to get her on the ballot for the 2012 Presidential election.

Work hard, get her out there, hopefully she won't quit, but I think you should take the chance.

After all if you are a republican, and a quitter, you are not a quitter.
Reply to this comment
by johndevinejr July 8, 2009 6:15 PM EDT
by pmsnbc2 July 8, 2009 12:09 PM PDT
He established a democracy in the heart of the middle east....and, oh yea, kept this country safe from attack. Your boy nobama is trying to undo both of those

So allowing jet aircraft to be flown into THREE BUILDINGS is the republican version of being safe?

ALLOWING THE WORLD TRADE CENTER AND THE PENTAGON TO BE BOMBED IS KEEPING US SAFE?? I guess if he is a repub, letting 3000 civilians get killed is ok? Doesn't seem right to me.


More accurately, he bungled TWO wars. One that he started in Iraq for the purpose of stealing oil and the other in Afaghanastan which he ignored because Osama Bin Laden was there and he didn't want to catch him and offend his good friends, the Bin Laden family.

George left a mess in Iraq for Obama to clean up. With luck we will have another of Georges messes cleaned up within 3 or 4 years.
Reply to this comment
by velma179 July 8, 2009 7:05 PM EDT
john... you forgot to mention the 4000+ service members killed in the wars. I wouldn't be saying to any family members that these men and women were kept "safe".... they are a part of "we' aren't they?
by steeepe July 8, 2009 6:14 PM EDT
72% of Republicans are intellectually challenged if that's the percentage that would vote for Palin. I guess they didn't get enough dumb from Bush and need more.
Reply to this comment
by saj210 July 8, 2009 6:14 PM EDT
This world is going mad!!!!

Anyone who would vote Sarah Palin for President or Vice President has lost their mind!!!!

I don't understand the Republicans or anyone else who would vote for Palin. It's like their common sense just went out the window. But maybe common sense is not their strong suit.

Palin in CLUELESS!!! The Republicans know that. If you are going to vote for a Republican, vote for someone who has a brain!!!!!!!
Reply to this comment
by bassinapple July 8, 2009 6:09 PM EDT
The bottom line is: in resigning she put Alaska ahead of any future politial ambition she might have. That is called selflessnes.
Reply to this comment
by johndevinejr July 8, 2009 6:01 PM EDT
by pubsrtoast July 8, 2009 12:17 PM PDT
by pmsnbc2 July 8, 2009 11:52 AM PDT
It's clear that an intelligent, atractive, strong willed woman SCARES LIBS TO DEATH

pmsnbc2, if your party finds someone like that to run, please let us know.


Please, please nominate Sarah Palin for the republican candidate for President in 2012.

She is the perfect representative of conservatism. The embodiment of republican belief and an example that all republicans can follow. She will definitely be the best choice.
Reply to this comment
by jeffstersf July 8, 2009 5:57 PM EDT
If a Democratic governor quit for no apparent reason, the Repugs would be screaming bloody murder. Palin IS a quitter, even though she inexplicably claims not to be.
Reply to this comment
by velma179 July 8, 2009 6:22 PM EDT
Well I'm neither a Democrat nor a Republican but ... while I wouldn't "scream bloody murder"... I would have just as much to say about a Democrat governor walking out on their job without a clear and imperative reason.
This is based solely on my belief that an elected official [local, state or national] has to fulfill the responsibility they ASKED people to give them with their vote.
It is ludicrous to think not running for re-election is a good or even valid reason to quit. The financial issues? While state money spent may have a bearing for the people of the state... I'd have to ask... what in heck did you do Governor Whomever... in order to think ethics complaints COULD continue for another eighteen months?
by johndevinejr July 8, 2009 5:56 PM EDT
by tomadams99 July 8, 2009 1:36 PM PDT
Ah yes, and you are certainly a credible writer...one who supports a man who has never held a job in his life, spent the nation into an abyss from which we will never recover, drives the country deeper and deeper into a controlled society...obviously, you are one of the uninformed idiots who struggled to make it through high school, if that even happened.


George Bush was handed a balanced budget and a budget surplus. He turned that into the worst economic disaster in history, by prosecuting a war based on deliberate lies and funded with credit and failing to prevent the financial industry from running scams like Derivitive Securities (look it up)
I assume you mean George Bush, the unitary executive who claimed the power to select Americans off the street and incarcerate them based on his judgement alone, without cause or warrant, a clear violation of the 4th Ammendment.
The extreme control by the Bush Administration, wiretapping millions of Americans without a warrant. Are these the controls you are talking about?

Or perhaps you mean the torture of prisoners.

I notice that repubs have a new talking point, where they claim they are being forced to do things.

So I ask this poster: Could you please give an example of the controls you mention and how they affect your life?
Or are you just repeating the talking points that you have been told to repeat?
Reply to this comment
by Slrman July 8, 2009 5:54 PM EDT
H.L Mencken was right when he wrote, "No one ever lost an election underestimating the intelligence of the American voter." I suspect the someone read that to Palin and then explained it to her. They sure seem to be depending on the idea that the voters are more ignorant that Sarah. Is that possible?
Reply to this comment
by hawksprings July 8, 2009 5:49 PM EDT
Don't knock Palin, you libs.

Obama is proof that ANYBODY can become president of the US.
Even those not born here.
Even those who think there are 57 states.
Reply to this comment
by Snowhare July 8, 2009 5:55 PM EDT
If you believe half of the statements in your post you are dumber than Palin and should be knocked into an clinic asap.
by jt92202 July 8, 2009 5:44 PM EDT
What I think is funny is that anyone would think that she has any chance to win anything. Don't get me wrong it has nothing to do with her quiting or her being a republican, it has to do with what has happened to her in the past year! If you look at her resignation from the Republican side of herself it was done correctly. The new guy has 18 months to make the people of AK happy, if she stayed in office no one with the "R" behind their name could get elected. Also she can't get anything done with all the press she gets and all the law suits against her. I think she did the right thing by stepping down. Whats best for the State should always come first!

But she will never be president and the Rep's need to understand if you put her on the ballot then you might as well hand the election over to the Demo's or a 3rd party (ya right) because there are a lot of people that do not like her. The press has done a great job on making her look stupid (she has helped with that) and at this time the press has more to do with everything than anyone! They can make you or break you, they helped make Obama and helped break Palin!

I don't care either way, I will vote for the best possible person because all the "D"s and "R"s stand for is who can we step on today and what do I get if I give you what you want.

It's time we start voting for people that will do their job for the people NOT for the party!!!!
Reply to this comment
by dennisall77 July 8, 2009 5:44 PM EDT
She is like the Coke fiasco in the 70's.. new coke vs classic coke.. either as marketing blunder or marketing genius.
Reply to this comment
by erasmus111 July 8, 2009 5:22 PM EDT
by hawksprings July 8, 2009 2:16 PM PDT
Ever notice how Conservative Political Women like Palin are good looking,
And Liberal Politcal Women like Hillary and Janet Reno are... rather homely?

That's what their views do to their looks.



You have said that before, and I have to say that is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard!
Reply to this comment
by hawksprings July 8, 2009 5:16 PM EDT
Ever notice how Conservative Political Women like Palin are good looking,
And Liberal Politcal Women like Hillary and Janet Reno are... rather homely?

That's what their views do to their looks.
Reply to this comment
by velma179 July 8, 2009 5:37 PM EDT
Selective, huh?

If that's "what their views do to their looks", it explains Ann Coulter, I guess.

Hillary and Janet at least look human.
by Snowhare July 8, 2009 5:51 PM EDT
Palin, Coulter, Bachman
all seem to prove that you can have your women EITHER intelligent OR beautiful.
Clinton and Pelosi are simply a few years older! Laura Bush isn't exactly a beauty, either. She hasn't got so many wrinkles, ok. But look at Bush, Clinton, Bush Senior and all the presidents: they get wrinkly in office. So, perhaps Clinton and Pelosi just take their job as seriously as they ought to... and do not quit?
by toldyouso29 July 10, 2009 4:25 AM EDT
LOL--remember Nancy Reagan and pat Nixon-- or Tammy Faye Baker what explains their looks? Fish hooks? LOL
by whitemale08 July 8, 2009 5:16 PM EDT
A few PUMAS and ditto-heads doesn't count.

Although I don't see how she could've done any worse then Obama.

Obama has turned out to be a complete disaster...to the point that I wish Bush back in the White House.

What's the difference? Both parties are just mindless puppets for BIG FAILED ZOMBIE BANKS like Goldman Sucks and JP Morgan.
Reply to this comment
by toldyouso29 July 10, 2009 4:22 AM EDT
She could have done worse than Obama in four ways:

1. We would never understood what the heck she was talking about and neither would she...

2. To date, it does not appear that Obama has used his power or the power of government to settle old scores or use it to payback others for family members--SArah has

3. Although Obama has some questionable associations with anti American people, none have gone as far as Palin's spouse and become avowed secessionists--tied to a party (the Alaska Independence party) in which the leader not only blew himself up with a bomb--but declared while living that " the fires of hell do not burn hot enough to melt the glacial hatred I have for the USA" (Vogler)

4. Though Obama may have gotten sweet deals for slum lords--who knows--he has yet to take government money--award contracts to companies and then have those same people build him a home while suspending the checks and balances and building permit laws which would have made an accounting possible--Palin is purported to have done that while building the Wasilla complex and using the same people to supply materials free of charge for her own home

So the fact is--on a cross comparison--the woman is incoherent, stupid, vengeful and has questionable and very intimate ties to secessionists as well as behaved unethically by appropriating tax payer money for unjustified private expenses. THOSE things alone are enough of a contrast to put her in a league well below Obama, not to mention there is something pathetic about a journalist major who cannot give an intelligent speech and who needed at least 6 colleges to get a Bachelor's degree and even then--was a "C" student. We already had a taste of a Republican "C" student--he gave us the FUBAR that is AMerica right now, remember?
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