Palin Power in the GOP

From Rasmussen Reports, stunning vindictation for Sarah Palin among Republicans. The media attack game doesn’t look all that successful. 69% of Republicans think that she helped McCain, only 20% think she hurt him.

Her favorable rating among the Republcians is 91% including 65% very favorable. 91% approval. If you assume that only those who thought she hurt the ticket didn’t approve of her, that would mean that 55% of people who thought she hurt the ticket had a favorable opinion of her.

But this may be the most amazing number of all. They went ahead and asked people their choice for 2012. Palin received 64%,  12% were for Huckabee, and 11% were for Mitt Romney. Now, you’re probably saying, “A poll four years before the election is completely useless.”

And you have a point. But believe me, I’ve been following these polls for a long time, and I remember all the way back to 1992  CBS News took a poll right after election day and the results: Jack Kemp, 24%, Bob Dole, 23%.  Both this time around and in 2000, I never heard of a candidate breaching 50%, let alone 60% in a pre-primary poll ever. 64% is a monster number.

Now, there are many things that are true. Palin has probably got one, maybe two books ahead of her that will talk about the campaign as well as provide a vision for the country. She’s got a tough situation in Alaska, but her fiscal prudence in good years will make that easier. Cutting spending with a surplus is not usually done. Yes, there’s a lot of time and things can. Yes, she may not want to run.

While I’m a Huckabee guy, it’s really hard to imagine that if she wants this nomination and she doesn’t mess up royally, that she wouldn’t get the nomination. In fact, if she’s putting up these type of numbers in two years, you’d probably Huckabee and Romney both stand aside.

As a side-note, I have to note the negatives for both Huckabee and Romney. While not as low as Palin’s 8%, both are viewed quite positively, Romney by 81% of the party, Huckabee by 80% with negatives of 15% and 16%. The people who have very negative opinions of both men make up 4 and 5% of the GOP.

Unfortunately, for Huckabee and Romney, these people all blog.