POLLING FOR 2012 - SARAH WEAK AGAINST OBAMA - AT 7:20 P.M. ET:  Advance polling for 2012 is, at this stage, more entertaining than informative, but it does give an early sense of where potential candidates are.  From RealClearPolitics:

New Marist poll of 2012 shows the same thing we've seen from other polls in the Republican primary: Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin, and Mike Huckabee are clustered at the top, with others trailing far behind:

Romney 21%
Palin 20%
Huckabee 19%
Gingrich 10%
Jindal 5%
Pawlenty 1%
Undecided 11%

But Sarah doesn't glow in the general-election matchup:

In a hypothetical general election matchup against President Obama, Palin gets crushed 56 to 33. Other than winning Republicans by a margin of 73-20, Palin loses to Obama in every other data cut: by region, income, education, race, age, and gender.

COMMENT:  Sarah has taken a great deal of unfair abuse.  And, as we've written here before, she hasn't, at times, helped herself.  She has a great deal of work to do to raise those general-election numbers.  Her recent foray into the health-care debate was smart and successful, though, showing that she can do it if she bears down.

August 18, 2009