If this poll could happen so quickly in 2010, then imagine what could possibly happen by 2012? Democrats in my opinion need to stop rooting for Sarah Palin to run in 2012 and they take her very seriously right now!

Sarah Palin has more followers on just Facebook alone than Keith Olbermann has in his entire Countdown audience and almost three times as many followers that Ed Schultz has on his MSNBC show:

http://securingamerica.com/ccn/node/17825#comment-355358

Palin has more followers on Facebook than Olbermann has on MSNBC

Submitted by Mitch Dworkin on February 8, 2010 - 4:05am.

Sarah Palin is VERY influential with a lot of people and she is a VERY dangerous ideologue!

If this polling trend should continue, then it is VERY possible that Palin could beat Obama in 2012 basically on a default basis if she is the Republican nominee and if too many people in middle America are not happy with Obama:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/10/AR2010021000010.html?hpid=topnews

Washington Post-ABC News poll
In poll, Republicans gaining political ground on Obama

By Dan Balz and Jon Cohen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Republicans have significantly narrowed the gap with Democrats on who is trusted to deal with the country's problems and have sharply reduced several of President Obama's main political advantages, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

See data from the poll

http://media.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/polls/postpoll_021010.html?sid=ST2010021000020

The survey paints a portrait of a restless and dissatisfied electorate at the beginning of a critical election year. More than seven in 10 Americans disapprove of the job Congress is doing, and as many say they're inclined to look for new congressional representation as said so in 1994 and 2006, the last times that control of Congress shifted.

Asked how they would vote in the November House elections, Americans split evenly -- 46 percent siding with the Democrats, 46 percent with the Republicans. As recently as four months ago, Democrats held a 51 to 39 percent advantage on this question.

Obama's overall approval rating is holding steady, with 51 percent of respondents giving him positive marks and 46 percent rating him negatively. On the big domestic issues -- the economy, health care, jobs and the federal budget deficit -- bare majorities of Americans disapprove of the job he is doing.

Only on fighting terrorism does Obama receive majority support for his performance, with 56 percent saying they approve. But the poll shows majority opposition to the administration's plan to try terrorism suspects in federal courts.

Changes in public attitudes were most apparent when Americans were asked whether they trust Obama or congressional Republicans to handle these issues. Last summer, the president enjoyed advantages of more than 20 points over the GOP on the handling of health care, the economy, the deficit and the threat of terrorism. Those leads have all slipped, reflecting both the partisan polarization that has colored the political landscape for many months and the sharp erosion in support for Obama among independents.

But there is about as much time between now and November as has elapsed since Obama held his June advantages. The president and his allies have started a new political offensive, seeking to rebound from the Democrats' loss of the Massachusetts Senate seat long held by the late Edward M. Kennedy and salvage their effort to enact comprehensive health-care reform.

Obama has begun to try to appeal to voters who see Washington as broken by stressing his commitment to bipartisanship, while aggressively trying to rebut GOP criticisms of his policies. At the same time, he has sought to refocus his energy on the economy and job creation, which remains the public's top priority.

When compared with the early months of Obama's presidency, the GOP's overall gains are striking. A year ago, Democrats held a 26-point advantage on dealing with the big issues; that lead is now six points. At the one-month mark, Obama's lead over the Republicans on dealing with the economy was 35 points; it's now five points.

Signs for November

These findings illustrate why the political landscape looks increasingly favorable for Republicans to pick up House and Senate seats in November, with some handicappers predicting major gains of 25 to 30 seats and Republican House leaders expressing confidence that they can win the 40 seats they need to take back the majority. The president's political advisers say privately that some losses are likely but that they are looking to keep them to a minimum.

The poll offers some cautionary notes for both parties. The GOP's image has improved since last year, but a majority of poll respondents still see the party in an unfavorable light (52 percent unfavorable, 44 percent favorable). Fifty percent view the Democratic Party favorably, and 46 percent unfavorably. That marks a new low point for the party in Post-ABC polling.

Slim majorities of independents rate each party negatively, and sizable percentages of that group express skeptical views of both parties. Nearly three in 10 volunteer that they trust "neither" party to handle major issues, and a similar proportion hold unfavorable views of both parties.

Almost half of all poll respondents characterize their mood as generally "anti-incumbent," with just over a third saying they are "pro-incumbent." Two-thirds of independents say they would like to look around, the most to say so in polls since October 1994.

The question asking Americans how they plan to vote in House races, known as the generic congressional vote, is an imperfect predictor of elections, but the GOP gains here amplify the extent of the Democrats' slide since they won the House in 2006. Four years ago, Democrats led Republicans on this question by a wide margin.

Among independents who are registered to vote, it's now a 51 to 35 percent GOP lead on this question, a mirror image of the Democrats' advantage among this group of voters on the eve of the 2006 midterms.

Economy remains the key

But the wild card remains the economy, along with public perceptions of recovery.

White House officials hope that an expanding economy will buoy public ratings of Obama's performance and spare his Democratic allies at the ballot box. They point to fourth-quarter gross domestic product estimates showing a rapidly expanding economy.

But the jobless rate, even after declining from 10 percent to 9.7 percent, remains high, and whatever the statistics may show, Americans remain gloomy.

Overwhelmingly, most of those polled continue to see the economic downturn as raging unabated, with just one in eight saying the recession is over, and a majority saying that in their own experience, the economy has not even started to recover.

Nearly three-quarters of those yet to sense an upswing expect that it will take more than a year for a recovery to kick in. Even among those who say the economy is headed in the right direction, the vast majority see the recovery as "weak."

This poll was conducted by conventional and cellular telephone Thursday to Monday among a random sample of 1,004 adults. The margin of sampling error for the full poll is plus or minus three percentage points.

and why she is "someone to be taken absolutely seriously." Joe Klein in my opinion completely "gets it" about Palin in this excellent article:

http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1963564,00.html

In The Arena

It's Her Party: The Brilliance of Sarah Palin

By Joe Klein Thursday, Feb. 11, 2010

"How's that hopey-changey stuff workin' out for ya?" Sarah Palin asked the anti-élitist Tea Party élites — those who could pay $549 for a ticket — gathered in suffocating self-righteousness at the Opryland Hotel on the first weekend of February. It was classic Palin, a brilliant line, brilliantly delivered: she does folksy far better than George W. Bush or any of the other Republican focus-group populists ever did. It was the signature line of her speech, which rocked the joint — and then, slowly, began to rock the national political community. The speech was inspired drivel, a series of distortions and oversimplifications, totally bereft of nourishing policy proposals — the sort of thing calculated, carefully calculated, to drive lamestream media types like me frothing to their keyboards. Palin is a big fat target, eminently available for derision. But I will not deride. Because brilliance must be respected, especially when it involves marketing in an era when image almost always passes for substance...

I suppose we need a paragraph here about why all this simplicity is extremely dangerous. Most economists agree that if it hadn't been for the bank bailouts and the Obama stimulus package, the country would have slid into a deep recession that might have prevented a lot of Tea Partyers from buying their $549 tickets to ride. Then again, any sentence that begins with "Most economists" is a license to snore in tea party nation. And Palin will, quite often, veer from simplicity to duplicity. She was the inventor of the mythic, noxious "death panels." In Nashville, she retailed nonsense about stimulus funds going to nonexistent districts. (A spokesman for Vice President Joe Biden, who is monitoring the stimulus package, told me that all funds went to actual places — but recipients occasionally didn't write down their correct congressional districts.) And her support for bombing Iran was, no doubt, the work of her new Washington-insider neoconservative policy advisers, Randy Scheunemann and Michael Goldfarb, who had John McCain singing from the same warmongering songbook in 2008.

So how's that hopey-changey stuff working out for you? The Obama presidency certainly hasn't ushered in an era of comity and prosperity. In the end, though, Palin is offering the opposite of hope and change: despair and stasis. The despair is histrionic and purposefully distorted; the stasis proved disastrous during the Bush Administration. But is Sarah Palin the favorite to win the Republican presidential nomination and therefore someone to be taken absolutely seriously? You betcha."

(tea party) movement tonight" in a post tea party speech analysis on CNN which I agree with as of now (as long as nothing happens to change that in the future). This is why I think that Sarah Palin is a very dangerous person who definitely has to be taken seriously:

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1002/06/cnr.10.html

CNN NEWSROOM

Sarah Palin Speaking at the National Tea Party Convention; One Weather System, Two Different Results; Lieutenant Governor Mitch Landrieu Elected Mayor of New Orleans

Aired February 6, 2010 - 22:00 ET

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: "And I want to get to Alex Castellanos right now. Alex, she's had -- you know, we talked about this a little bit earlier. You kind of had some idea what she was going to say. She hit the administration hard. She talked about all the spending, she believes, the stimulus, and a lot of the things that she said, of course, is going to be fact checked over the next couple of days. We are working on it here as well.

But she talked about big government as they said. What did you make of her speech? It was really more, not so much policy, I think as more as John said more of a campaign-style speech.

ALEX CASTELLANOS, REPUBLICAN CONSULTANT: Very much a campaign speech, and I think John is right. She anointed herself leader of this movement tonight. She said that this is the future of politics, and she kind of walked in and took the reigns.

So I think that there are a lot of people tonight, a lot of Republicans, who are concerned about her -- is she the next Republican presidential candidate, who are going to still have doubts about her as the next candidate, but who are going to find it hard to disagree with anything she said this evening. It was a very tough message on the Democrats, on President Obama. I think you are going to see a lot of candidates echoing her message of, you know, if you are not against lowering up terrorists, you are not going to do well in the next election. So it was a powerhouse political speech..."

seriously and to be cheering them on in my opinion:

1) Paul Begala on CNN Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees on 1/5/10:

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1001/05/acd.01.html

ANDERSON COOPER 360 DEGREES

Price for Security Failures?; Third White House Party Crasher Revealed

Aired January 5, 2010 - 22:00 ET

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: "Under the Bush administration, Richard Reid was put into the court system.

PAUL BEGALA, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: As was Zacarias Moussaoui, the alleged -- not the alleged -- the convicted 20th terrorist on 9/11. Of course it's not fair.

But it's -- as a Democrat -- put my partisan hat on -- it is great. You know, there are thoughtful and responsible and expert critics in the Republican Party on national security. Earlier, Larry King had John Negroponte on, who had served President Bush, but also been in many other administrations, Tom Ridge, the former homeland security secretary, General Powell, of course, maybe the most respected man in America.

These voices then get drowned out by Sarah Palin, Dick Cheney. And I have just to tell you, as a political operative, there is nothing the White House wants more than to see Sarah Palin, Dick Cheney, discredited people, attacking them, because that rallies normal people to their side.

If the Republicans were wise, they would have more of their thoughtful critics out there, like those others that I named..."

2) James Carville on CNN Larry King Live on 1/5/10:

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1001/05/lkl.01.html

CNN LARRY KING LIVE

President Obama Demands Answers; Newark Airport Security Breach

Aired January 5, 2010 - 21:00 ET

LARRY KING, HOST: "James, what do you make of Vice President Cheney's actions?

JAMES CARVILLE, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Let's give President Obama credit; he didn't invade the wrong country. And let's further give him credit that he didn't have Osama bin Laden caught and backed away from it, as Vice President Cheney did. We'll give him a big round of applause there.

I don't know what -- I think they got a vice president and Michael Steele and Sarah Palin out. Democrats couldn't pay for better criticism..."

It takes some non-partisan and credible analysts to understand how seriously that Dick Cheney has to be taken I am glad to see that is happening right now. However I definitely believe that Sarah Palin has to be taken just as seriously as Cheney because she is a very dangerous person just like how Cheney is and she has a much bigger cult-like following than Cheney does. Palin is also helping a lot of GOP primary candidates who are ideologues in the mold of Michele Bachmann and and Jim DeMint to win their primary races and many of these candidates will probably go on to win in November:

1) Feb. 14 State of the Union with Candy Crowley:

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1002/14/sotu.01.html

STATE OF THE UNION WITH CANDY CROWLEY

Interview With National Security Adviser General Jones; Interview With Senator Kyl

Aired February 14, 2010 - 09:00 ET

CANDY CROWLEY, HOST: "Joining me now in Washington, CNN senior White House correspondent, Ed Henry, senior political analyst Gloria Borger and Julie Mason, White House correspondent for the "Washington Examiner." Thanks, all, appreciate it.

OK, the terrorism has now reared its ugly head in the political way. We have been hearing about it for about a month. It seems to me -- Republicans are -- this is going to be one of their campaign year issues. Today, Cheney, Biden out talking about who knows what, who doesn't know what they're doing. Is this replaying an election that may not play for Republicans or is it helping?

ED HENRY, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think it can certainly help the Republicans. They think it will, at least. If you look at the whole -- I was looking at it yesterday, the weekly radio address the president does, it was again about the economy, he has been talking about fiscal sanity, et cetera, the last four or five weeks in a row.

Republicans, this weekend, again about terrorism, about war on terror. Susan Collins did it a few weeks ago. They have been hitting this issue hard because they do think it's a winner for them. And frankly, they believe, that's why former vice president Cheney is out there today -- they believe this president is not executing the war on terror well. Well, Joe Biden's response as the current vice president is basically like, we've adapted a lot of their policies. We're doing a lot of things they did --

GLORIA BORGER, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST: Only better at it.

HENRY: Shocked when you thought about how they ran against the whole Bush/Cheney doctrine on all of this stuff and I think they are kind of -- in a way the White House is picking and choosing which parts of the Bush agenda they like. But on the other hand, I do think you've got to give the Obama administration some credit. As even Jon Kyl just did about what's happening in Afghanistan, for example, where it does appear that this administration is really taking the fight to the terrorists on the ground, and even Jon Kyl admitted that.

BORGER: Sure, I mean, this administration is essentially saying we are doing the same things and you are not giving us enough credit for it. Which is why, you were there I believe one night the other week, the administration hastily called reporters together and said we are getting more information out of Abdulmutallab, and he has been singing to us because there was the whole controversy over whether they should have mirandized him the way they did.

They made some mistakes. They admitted they didn't consult their intelligence chiefs enough. They have now made sure that that is going to happen, but they say, look, we are better than the guys before us, and don't try and say that we are not.

CROWLEY: But, it seems to me there are signs that the White House knows that it's kinds of around the edges made some mistakes?

JULIE MASON, WASHINGTON EXAMINER: Yes, absolutely, and one of the fascinating things about today's point, counter point, with Biden and Cheney, is that the administration has not yet figured out how to respond to Dick Cheney.

They have tried to dismiss him. They have tried to belittle him and ignore him, but the point is when he speaks, it gives some credibility and credence to what the Republicans are saying. He's sort of like a powerful voice for the Republican party, even though he is not politically a popular figure in this country, and so now they send Joe Biden out and now they've found a way to respond to Dick Cheney. Because the fear was, if you take him head on and you respond directly to what he is saying, you are giving him consequence and more power than they want him to have.

HENRY: He wants back when former vice president Cheney made a big speech in Washington, you will remember the same day President Obama came out and gave a big speech about terrorism, and it was a big deal that this morning this White House decided to meet Cheney head on by putting out Joe Biden. That was no small measure..."

2) Feb. 14 CNN Newsroom:

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1002/14/cnr.02.html

CNN NEWSROOM

Biden Versus Cheney; Civilians Killed in Marjah Offensive; Obama's Approval Rating Falls Dramatically; Holder Didn't Expect Backlash on Terror Trial Decision; Tax Season is Coming, Advice for Filers

Aired February 14, 2010 - 18:00 ET

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: "Call it a Sunday showdown -- a face-off of political heavyweights on different morning shows with two very different agendas, Vice President Joe Biden and his predecessor, former Vice President Dick Cheney. They traded jabs over the airwaves today on everything, from the tactics for fighting terrorism to the treatment and trials of terror suspects...

LEMON: I want to bring in our deputy political director, Paul Steinhauser -- because you know this is going to be the political headline for the next couple days. So, Paul, can you say who won?

PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: You know, listen, I'm not going to say if either the vice president or the former vice president came out a winner here. But what's interesting, Don, is the White House taking former Vice President Cheney serious enough that, first, you had Joe Biden taping "Meet the Press." Then had you the former Vice President Cheney live on "This Week" on ABC. And then the current vice president coming back and rebutting him live on CBS' "Face the Nation."

So, the strategy here by the White House of taking the former vice president is extremely seriously. It's an interesting point here. And as to Joe Biden, that's -- this is the vice president's job, basically to be the bad cop to sometimes the president's good cop. We saw that here today.

LEMON: My next question, most people thought when Barack Obama, then- candidate Obama or nominee Obama, picked Joe Biden, that Joe Biden would be the attack dog, right? And because he was known for that.

So, I'm wondering is this the old Joe Biden that we're used to seeing. Is he now going to be the attack dog? Is this a new strategy that they're -- that they're putting in place here?

STEINHAUSER: Yes. I don't think that strategy ever went away actually. You know, Joe Biden, as we all know, the vice president --

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: We didn't hear from him that much though. We didn't hear from him I think for a while. I mean, you know, there they kind of stopped him from talking a little bit. But now, we're appearing to here more. And he seems much more pointed and much stronger in his discussion and defending the policies of this administration.

STEINHAUSER: And I think another side of that as well is that this administration, I think, is realizing when it comes to public opinion, terrorism and fighting terrorists is becoming a little more important than it was about a year ago when the economy dwarfed everything, Don..."

that she really is (which is what I am sure they really believe about her) instead of having to talk their way around that question in order to be "politically correct" when it is publicly asked. People like Larry King and others should know that prominent Democrats with an image to protect like Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, and Michelle Obama would never say anything bad about Sarah Palin in public even though they probably believe that she is a partisan kook just like how I do and like how much of the country does:

1) Joe Biden:

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1002/10/lkl.01.html

CNN LARRY KING LIVE

Interview with Vice President Joe Biden; John and Teresa Heinz Kerry Interview; New "We Are The World" Version to Open Olympics

Aired February 10, 2010 - 21:30 ET

LARRY KING, HOST: "All right. All I have to say is say her name -- Sarah Palin.

JOE BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I like her.

KING: She wanted your job.

BIDEN: Yes, well, you know, everybody keeps (INAUDIBLE) --

KING: Do you like her?

BIDEN: I do. I like her. She's an engaging person. She has a great personality. I don't agree with what she says and I think some of the things she says are not -- well, I -- I -- I -- I -- I --

KING: What were you going to say?

BIDEN: Well, you know, it's -- it's sort of like some -- some of the comments made are just so far sort of out there, I just don't know where they come from. But, she -- if you -- if you met her, she's an engaging person.

KING: I've met her.

BIDEN: I understand why people like her.

KING: Do you fear her -- I mean fear her, in a sense, politically fear her?

BIDEN: No, I don't. Look, I -- I've not done as much the law of politics as I used to do when I was a senator. I mean, this job, I've been given big chunks of assignments -- Iraq this, et cetera. So I'm not up to being able to give you the poll numbers.

But my sense is that Sarah appeals -- Governor Palin appeals to a group of people who are generally frustrated, feel disenfranchised, are -- are very conservative -- not all of them and --

KING: Tea Party people.

BIDEN: Tea Party people, but beyond that. She has appeal beyond that, as well. But -- but I don't know that it represents a -- anything approaching a -- a significant portion of the population.

KING: All right, you mentioned Iraq..."

2) Hillary Clinton:

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1002/16/ec.01.html

CAMPBELL BROWN

Interview With Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank; Anti- Incumbent Fever Sweeping the Nation

Aired February 16, 2010 - 20:00 ET

CAMPBELL BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: "Over now to Saudi Arabia and the surprise question for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Check out this moment from a town meeting at a college in Jeddah.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Does the prospect of Sarah Palin one day becoming president maybe terrify you?

(LAUGHTER)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And, if so, would you consider immigrating to Canada or possibly even Russia in the -- the event of this happening?

(LAUGHTER)

(APPLAUSE)

HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: Well, the short answer is, no, I will not be immigrating.

(LAUGHTER)

CLINTON: It is part of the American political environment that people are always speculating on who will run for president and who will become president. And I have gone through that experience personally, so I'm very well-acquainted with it.

But I'm not going to speculate on who might or might not be nominated by the Republicans.

I am very proud to support Barack Obama, and I will continue to support Barack Obama.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Secretary Clinton had kind of a tough day. Her plane broke down in Saudi Arabia, and she ended up having to hitch a ride with General David Petraeus..."

3) Michelle Obama:

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1002/09/lkl.01.html

CNN LARRY KING LIVE

Interview with First Lady Michelle Obama; Bill Cosby Speaks Out Against Unhealthy Schools

Aired February 9, 2010 - 21:00 ET

LARRY KING, HOST: "Sarah Palin is one of the president's biggest critics. We'll ask Michelle Obama about that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: OK. It's obvious that we don't have to elaborate.

What's your read on the former governor of Alaska?

MICHELLE OBAMA, FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES: You know, I -- you know, I don't have a read. I mean, I try not to make or -- or set opinions about people that I haven't had any, you know, substantive interaction with. I mean, I know what you see on TV and when you're in the...

KING: Does it irk you when she criticizes what (INAUDIBLE)...

M. OBAMA: You know, democracy is about critique and the president is not immune to criticism. I think he's doing a phenomenal job. You know, we have to think of where we were when he took office. We were on the brink -- the brink of a depression worse than anyone really ever imagined. And I don't think the country ever really knew how bad things were. And because of some important steps, quick thinking, smart, strategic thinking, we're not even talking about that.

We've got to do more on jobs. We need to get health care done. There's a lot of work to be -- to be done. And -- and we need to do more to improve the civility in Washington. And I think if -- if there's a disappointment, Barack wishes that we had -- we'd come -- or that we'd come farther in that -- in that effort.

KING: Is she -- is she a phenomenon to you?

M. OBAMA: Again, I mean, I think she -- I think it's wonderful to have strong female voices out there, but I don't know her.

KING: What did you think of the Tea Party?

M. OBAMA: You know, I'm -- I'm focused on what's in front of me. And right now, that's ending childhood obesity in a generation -- getting this done. And I think when you're staying focused on solutions, trying to bring folks together -- governors, mayors and doctors and educators and athletes together around an issue that has no political party, you know, has no base in liberalism or conservatism, but it's about our kids and making sure they have the best life possible, then, you know, I -- it's hard for me...

KING: (INAUDIBLE).

M. OBAMA: -- to get distracted...

KING: But you have to think about other things. You read the papers, you watch the television. You -- I mean you're all -- you're very smart and very aware.

M. OBAMA: I'm very smart but I -- I try to limit my intake to things that I can control. Because in this position, you know, it is my responsibility to work with all Americans. And I want to stay focused on the work...

KING: Right.

M. OBAMA: -- rather than, you know...

KING: Other things.

M. OBAMA: Other things..."