So where does Sarah Palin stand right now? Well according to the recent Public Policy Poll (PPP) she is doing quite well, in fact she is in the lead of all potential GOP 2012 contenders.

Sarah Palin favorability rating among conservative Republicans is 73%, Huckabee is at 65%, and Romney is at 53%. Sarah Palin also has a 45% approval rating among registered independents, which is just under half of their support. Sarah Palin also scored huge among Hispanic voters with a 51% approval rating, with not even a close second among GOP 2012 hopefuls. Sarah Palin also leads among GOP 2012 contenders with the 18-29 age range with 51% having a favorability rating in what is traditionally considered a Democratic stronghold.

In every region in the country Sarah Palin is in the lead against all the other GOP 2012 hopefuls; with 43% in the Northeast, 47% in the South, 50% in the Midwest, and 51% in the West.  

How about among GOP “moderates” surely Sarah Palin is not doing well with this demographic, right? Wrong the PPP Poll finds that, “For the second month in a row we found Sarah Palin as the most popular of the leading 2012 GOP hopefuls among moderate Republicans. 64% have a positive opinion of her compared to 57% for Newt Gingrich, 53% for Mike Huckabee, and 45% for Mitt Romney.”

So for Sarah Palin the sky is the limit, and she has yet to really start taking the fight to the Democrats and Obama. Sarah Palin finds herself in an excellent position if she decided to run for the White House in 2012. As I said before he comes The Northern Storm!

Is Sarah Palin framing the debate? Today Sarah Palin attacked Obama over the “cap & tax” energy bill in the Washington Post of all places. Well it did not take long for George Soros and his ilk at Moveon.org to strike back at Sarah Palin, who is the Republican they fear the most. This leads me to wonder if over the course of the next three years a ferociously bloody battle will rage between Sarah Palin who represents the GOP conservative opposition and the Obama Marxist regime. Sarah Palin I believe is learning how to master the liberal media who are obsessed with her, and with no other Republican. What do I mean by this? The liberal media is so obsessed with Sarah Palin that they report pretty much everything she says and does; even when it hurts their own cause, like today’s Washington Post oped piece by Palin. Thus, Sarah Palin knows that when she attacks Obama that the liberal media will faithfully report it even though it hurts their precious Obama, and she is the only Republican who can do this because of the liberal media’s obsession with her. Sarah Palin knows that she has the biggest microphone in the GOP and this frames the political landscape for the next three years as Sarah Palin vs. Obama, which will put her in an excellent position for the GOP primaries in 2012 because she already will be seen as the “anti-Obama” candidate. I am certain that we will see a very bloody battle between Sarah Palin and the Obama machine over the next three years. As I have said before here comes “The Northern Storm” from Alaska!  

   However some bad news came out for the GOP elites and Mitt Romney today. Sarah Palin’s political action committee raised in 5 months $733,000 with very, very, little advertising and no campaigning by Sarah Palin, (she has raised another $200,000 since her disclosure). Romney’s Political Action Committee raised $1.4 million over six months. Now what is interesting is that Romney is and has been in full campaign mode for years now and his only current job is raising money with the help of rich GOP elites for himself. Sarah Palin’s PAC is little known and Sarah has not been in campaign mode, and she will not until she steps down as Governor of Alaska in about two weeks, and it should be noted that most of her financial support comes from the grassroots and not the overly rich like Romney.

   So Sarah Palin must first defeat the GOP elites and their candidate of choice, Mitt Romney and then remake the GOP back into the image of Traditional Conservatism, back into the image of Ronald Reagan. Then she must take out Obama, and never fear Sarah Palin is quite skilled in hunting, politically killing, and mounting a donkey’s head on her wall.

But Becky Beach, a Des Moines woman with long personal ties to the Bush family and presidential campaigns, said she hopes her connections can improve the chances with the in-demand, outgoing governor. "Absolutely, I'm trying to get her here," Beach said. "It would be a huge event."

Beach, who is helping the state party with fundraising and event planning, had begun trying to reach Palin's team before the announcement last week that Palin plans to step down as governor on July 26. Beach said she hopes to have another conversation as early as next week.

Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley plugged the idea of inviting Palin to help raise money. He recalled Palin's reception in Iowa during the presidential campaign.

Palin was greeted by a big, enthusiastic crowd during her first trip to Iowa with Republican presidential nominee John McCain in September. She drew even larger crowds for solo stops in Sioux City, Des Moines and Dubuque.

"I think she has quite a following in Iowa, and maybe I'm impressed because, at the three events I spent with her in Iowa during the last campaign, she had bigger turnouts than McCain had," Grassley told reporters.

But it was far from certain whether Palin would be in Iowa anytime soon.

First, she is the most-sought-after personality in the Republican Party, longtime Iowa Republican campaign adviser Dave Roederer said.

The cell phone voice mail for Palin spokeswoman Meg Stapleton on Wednesday was full and not accepting new messages.

Also, it was not clear whether Palin was stepping down to lay the groundwork for a 2012 presidential campaign or for other reasons.

Meanwhile, Palin remains very new to the national political scene and has few Iowa contacts, Roederer said.

"I think it's fair to say there's really no direct connections with Palin's office and anyone in the state," he said.

But the Reagan dinner, which doesn't have a date set yet for this year, has regularly drawn would-be presidential candidates hoping to make an impression on potential caucusgoers.

Jeff Boeyink, executive director of the Republican Party of Iowa, said the demand for Palin suggests her appearance in Iowa would make for a blockbuster event.

"We would need a very large venue to make it happen," he said.

A Rasmussen Poll has things pretty much at a three way tie for a GOP 2012 primary. Rasmussen Reports:

They Say/We Say

The debate over Palin is sort of ossified.

The Left continues to ridicule her accent, family, and middling roots. The Right enjoys such authenticity-but enjoys even more the hysteria it incurs in liberals.

Will it Be Politics or Money?

But lost in all of this is whether she is up to national politics, or simply wishes to capitalize (an Oprah-like talk show?) on her sizable financial potential. On the one hand, Palin is obviously bright. Few could raise a family without capital in Wasilla, and within a decade end up as Governor of a large state-whose protocols hinged on an old-boy network where politicians accommodated oil and mineral interests.

On the other hand, a mother of five, knee-deep in local politics, without money and leisure, is not going to be reading Gibbon for perspective, or spending the afternoon perusing Foreign Affairs. Nor is she going to remember a quip that her Prof at the Kennedy school once offered years ago. Nor is she going to recall clever repartee at a Georgetown dinner party from one grandee to another.

She has natural gifts-stamina, earthy grit, sensitivity to what most Americans go through raising a family on a limited budget, practicality from working with her hands in a natural world. All that is no small beer. Look at Truman’s various experiences in Missouri.

No Way 2012-Maybe 2016, 2020?

But if, a big if, she decides to become a national political figure, Palin should use these next few years (in addition to making some money to support her family) to travel and read widely in the manner that a Reagan did in his wilderness period. She has natural intelligence and is curious. I think most would like to see her do another Couric interview five years from now after she had time to size up DC insiders, meet more politicians, lecture in front of hostile audiences-and just read and reflect. At fifty-five she could become a formidable candidate, given her natural charisma and authentic middle-class persona.

They All Resign-One Way or Another

As far as her resignation, it will be forgotten in two years. Politicians like William Weld, Bob Dole, Fred Thompson, and Bill Bradley have done it (to no real advantage).  John McCain and Barack Obama essentially resigned from the Senate by campaigning nonstop for two years (but while getting paid). In Obama’s case, it is hard to believe whether he was ever really working as a Senator, but instead almost began prepping for the Presidency (after swearing that he would not) as soon as he was elected.

So Why the Hatred?

A Huffington Post satirist offers jokes about her son Trig’s disability, and mental impairment in general.

David Letterman laughs at the notion of her 14-year-old daughter having sex in a dugout with a baseball player.

Andrew Sullivan offered up conspiracy theories about how her daughter, not Palin herself, “really” delivered Trig.

Maureen Dowd declares that “Caribou Barbie is one nutty puppy,” and laughs at the names of her children, some geese-honking in the background during her interview, even the Piper Cub tiny plane near the Palin house.

Sarah Palin: It’s Her Party And She’ll Resign If She Wants To

It has been amusing to watch the speculation of the Alaska Governor’s motivations and future aspirations after announcing her resignation last Friday. Senate bid? “No, Alaskans would never forgive her for leaving them” said the Sunday shows. Presidential bid? “Not possible now,” say the smartest strategists and campaigners. Host a talk show? Sell books? Go on the lecture circuit? All possible, though not all probable. But the one thing most of the pundits on both the left and the right in Washington D.C. have declared certain - Palin’s political career is D.O.A.

Not so fast, my friends. Since we’re all engaged in wild speculation, allow the reading of one more set of tea leaves, if you please.
 
You can roll your eyes and tease Palin’s supposed lightweight intellectual status. You can bury your head in shame when Charlie Gibson peers down his nose through his reading glasses and stumps her with international policy questions. You may say she had no business on the national stage from the get-go last fall when John McCain announced her as his vice presidential pick. But what you cannot ignore, nor take from her is what she is about to seize on in a big way.The dirty little secret is the 2010 and 2012 Republican candidates in both houses of Congress need Palin now more than ever. They need her just as John McCain needed her. Conservative voters both independent and Republican don’t trust the crew in Washington. Historically it is true they never have when asked. But this is not your typical “throw the bums out” mentality fomenting at tea party protests of late. This is a time when long term blue dog Democrat and Republican moderate office holders are nervously wondering, “Just how real IS the anger?” Bailouts, takeovers, stimulus spending, aggressive energy taxes, and nationalized health care have this electorate frightened and angry. The public is paying attention to their every vote, and those that are on the side of the American taxpayer will be rewarded in coming elections.
 
Then there are those politicians who got it right most of the time, but voted to bail out car companies because, “American car companies going bankrupt would signal the end of our economy.” Or a personal favorite, “Well, sure, I voted to bail out Wall Street and the banks, but, can you imagine the kind of trouble we’d be in today if I hadn’t?” One shudders to think. (Tongue firmly buried in cheek, or course.)
 
Americans aren’t buying what Washington’s selling anymore, and politicians know it. Especially wary of this fact are the damaged Republicans who bought into the economic Chicken Little routine last fall. So just how does a Republican candidate whip up a base of support when voters are angry or suspicious of their voting history? Enter the most powerful motivator and fundraiser in all of Republican politics today. 
 
Name a Republican today who could draw a larger crowd, and encourage more checks to be cut to a political candidate than Alaska’s governor. Ex-presidents don’t count, by the way. But even if you included George Bush - I think she’d give him a race for the dollar. That said - go ahead, try it. Cheney? Romney? Pawlenty? Jindal? Rove? Steele? Rice? Powell? McCain? Huckabee? Ron Paul? Nope. None of them touch the pull of Palin. Remember, it’s not about whom you like personally. It’s who can raise the most money and draw the biggest crowd that matters most in this game.
 
You don’t have to like the unseemly truth of what Reagan called “the second oldest profession.” You don’t have to like Palin’s magnetism. Heaven knows many of the names just mentioned don’t. This one-term pony from the sticks is stealing their thunder. Plain and simple, this woman is not only a license to print money; she is the belle of the ball - the envy of the Republican political establishment. Palin has achieved a level of authentic, average-Joe appeal unmatched by any Republican on the national stage since Reagan and that is sexy as hell to a party who needs money and excitement now more than ever.
 
No, they’ll not say it publicly. In fact, they’ll dismiss her influence altogether if asked. But I’ll bet my house that the weekend voice mailbox of Governor Palin was full of begging, pleading Republican Senate, House, and gubernatorial candidates humbly requesting this “erratic, irrelevant, lightweight” to come stand at their side during their upcoming picnic/potluck/town hall/ cocktail fundraiser.
 
Perhaps the political chattering class is correct. Maybe Sarah Palin isn’t electable anymore. It’s highly doubtful that even came close to the top of her list when weighing the option of resigning last week. Sarah Palin knows she holds something more powerful than elected office right now. She has a consistent, unwavering commitment to celebrating American exceptionalism, freedom, and less government in the lives of every American. She now has the ability to hold each and every politician who calls on her for help to rise to her standard and maintain the integrity of the conservative movement. Put plainly, she will now determine the standard, direction, and message of conservatism going forward if they want her help. And there can be no doubt they crave her help.  
 
She holds popularity, trust, interest, and an excitement with a sizable national constituency who listen to her more than any public official today. She can write a best-selling book, turn out big donors, and virtually steal the spot light from anyone who shares the stage. Not bad for an “erratic, lightweight, quitter with no political future.”

Sarah Palin will be around and relevant long after those quietly begging her to save their political lives today. When she leaves office in a couple of weeks, she assumes the role of the Republican’s titular kingmaker. Call it “Palin’s Green Party.” Green - the color of envy and the color of money and oh, how she’s going to create both.

A Rassmusen Poll found the following today:

“Forty percent (40%) of Republican voters nationwide say Sarah Palin’s decision to resign as governor of Alaska hurts her chances of winning the party’s presidential nomination in 2012. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of GOP voters finds that (24%) believe Palin’s resignation helps her chances of winning the Republican nomination, while 28% say it will have no impact on the race.”

So why does the headline read:

“40% of GOP Voters Say Resignation Hurts Palin’s Chances in 2012”