Palin: Voters may not care she quit

It looks like ordinary voters may not care as much about Sarah Palin’s resignation as pundits do.

Yes, her diction was kind of loopy, yes, the timing was odd, and yes, Alaskans will now have to get used to a new governor. But the whole affair does not appear to have budged her national poll numbers very much, going by a Gallup survey released Thursday.

Last November, the American public was pretty much split into competing camps about the losing GOP VP candidate. Forty-eight percent viewed her favorably, and 47 percent viewed her unfavorably, according to Gallup data.

And now? It’s 43 percent favorable, 45 percent unfavorable, according to a Gallup poll taken from July 10-12.

“This suggests no widespread deterioration in her image after her surprising decision to resign her post as governor with more than a year left in her term,” writes Gallup analyst Jeffrey M. Jones.

In fact, the most startling thing about the new numbers may be that 12 percent of respondents said they have no opinion about Ms. Palin at all – good or bad.

As to her relative standing in the GOP, she remains as popular as any of the other potential 2012 nominees that have been coughed up by The Great Mentioner.

Palin is the choice of 21 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents for the party’s 2012 nomination, according to Gallup. Mitt Romney does slightly better – he’s the choice of 26 percent – but the pair could be said to be tied, because that five point lead is within the poll’s margin of error.