Found this little nugget in a piece about Huck in the Politico today.
Apparently he’s leading the pack with GOPers…
Gallup’s survey of Republicans found that 71 percent would consider voting for him, more than for Palin, Romney or others. The same survey found that he’s the only Republican whom even 50 percent of Americans say they [...]

Unlikely, but he’s making noises yet again.
From C-Span via Politics Daily:
C-SPAN: “If you were to run, what factors would you take into account? What would lead you to think about running?”
GINGRICH: “Callista and I are going to think about this in February 2011. And we are going to reach out to all of our friends [...]

Matt Lewis breaks it down:
Today, the perfunctory, “next in line” theory suggests that the most likely GOP nominee will be former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. While Romney dropped-out of the 2008 campaign earlier than Mike Huckabee, most conservatives concede that Romney finished in second place – and that is certainly the view held by the [...]

Looks like Christmas is coming early this year!
From The AP:
Harper publisher Jonathan Burnham says the former Alaska governor invested herself deeply and passionately in the project. He says the book contains fascinating detail.
The 400-page book is the first for Palin, who has been an object of fascination since Republican Sen. John McCain chose her as [...]

Public Policy Polling pitted the top Republicans (including Jeb Bush) against Obama in a hypothetical matchup and found that the former Arkansas Governor’s folksy ways puts him at the top of the pack. And this makes sense. Huckabee is amiable, has some ideas that at least sound new (get rid of the IRS, FAIR tax) [...]

After having an electoral stake pounded through its heart last November, after being exposed to the searing media morning light of a “permanent realignment” in the “center-left” American electorate, with a silver bullet in the brain of a “broken GOP brand”, and with a garlic necklace strangling it’s “sixty’s culture war” neck, the corpse of “Divided Government” seemed dead and buried in the media for the foreseeable future. But last week the undead meme was walking again

Some interesting polling numbers from PPP via Pollster.com:
Favorable / Unfavorable
Newt Gingrich: 33 / 42
Mike Huckabee: 45 / 28
Sarah Palin: 40 / 49
Mitt Romney: 37 / 34
2012 President
Obama 49%, Gingrich 41%
Obama 47%, Huckabee 44%
Obama 52%, Palin 38%
Obama 47%, Romney 40%
What is most notable to me are the 2012 presidential match-ups. Mike Huckabee is the [...]

At TMV Jazz Shaw talks about Mitt Romney’s upcoming book (’No Apologies’) and a possible run for the presidency in 2012:
I never thought Romney stood a chance in 2008, mostly because of a combination of his “Mormon problem” and his rather abrupt conversion to hard core conservatism, which left many Republicans wondering how sincere he [...]

A new NBC/WSJ poll has some sobering news for both of the 2012 hopefuls.
From MSNBC:
Palin stepped down from office on Sunday, and could be eyeing a presidential bid in 2012. But according to the poll, a whopping 67 percent of Americans — and 43 percent of Republicans — say they would not like to see [...]

But Palin is still close behind???

Not only that, Palin has the most favorable numbers among Republicans and Republican leaning Independents…

Genuinely, I don’t get Republican’s fascination with Palin. Especially after her implosion a couple weeks ago, which was before this poll was conducted.
Long story short, the GOP better hope she doesn’t run. Because if she does [...]

This one’s a puzzler.
The potential 2012 candidate who has the least foreign policy knowledge since George W. Bush is the #1 choice for GOPers when it comes to keep us safe?
More at True/Slant.

“There are tens of millions of pro-choice Republicans that are just as good Republicans as I am, and we need to support them. That’s what party building is about, and don’t think that is giving up your principles.”
- Haley Barbour testing the waters for 2012
No doubt this is encouraging, but are base Republicans really ready [...]

If Sarah Palin really does have presidential aspirations, today’s move was the worst she ever could have made.
I discuss why over at True/Slant.

2012 is already ramping up for some folks.
From Radio Iowa:
A friend of mine in Des Moines, Iowa, got a phone call last night, testing out the names of potential 2012 GOP presidential candidates. It was an automated survey and did not indicate who the sponsor of the call might be, “but it was quite [...]

I’m on 2012 watch yet again…
Embedded video from CNN Video

Here he is on fiscal conservatism…
“If you’re going to be, for example, the party of fiscal discipline and be the person who’s talking about fiscal responsibility, then you better do that. Hypocrisy doesn’t sell. And, the Republicans have to be true to their values, true to [...]

NPR’s Ken Rudin ranks the 21 Republican governors (Mark Sanford is still on the list) and their chances…
I’ve decided, in a completely unscientific, data-free exercise, to rate the GOP governors in terms of their likelihood of ever reaching the White House (not necessarily in 2012, but sometime in the future).
I readily concede that my list [...]

Naw, he’s not running for President.
No, not at all.
From The Times-Picayune:
A group of Gov. Bobby Jindal’s political supporters, including an uncle of the governor’s wife, Supriya Jindal, are forming a federal political action committee to support a presidential run by the 38-year-old Republican.
The governor is aware of the operations of Jindal For President [...]

It’s still early yet in Obama presidency, but given that he’s above 50% in many states that didn’t vote go for him this fall…there’s some significance here.
From FiveThirtyEight:
Obama’s approval equals or exceeds 50 percent in all of the states that he won on November 4th, plus Arizona (10 electoral votes), Arkansas (6), Georgia (15), Kentucky [...]

Bad news for Republicans and a sure sign that they need to either change their ways or risk being a regional party.
From Gallup…

Here’s how that breaks out…
More than 6 in 10 Republicans today are white conservatives, while most of the rest are whites with other ideological leanings; only 11% of Republicans are Hispanics, or are [...]

“If it’s 2012 and our party is defined by Palin and Limbaugh and Cheney, then we’re headed for a blowout. That’s just the truth.”
- A GOP strategist for John McCain and Jon Huntsman
Here’s more about Hunstman specifically and Obama’s savvy move to make him ambassador to China…
Now, Huntsman’s decision to accept the president’s invitation to [...]