Cruz Totally Dominates Hot Air Poll With 35% Trump at 19% as Sarah Palin Grabs 11%

By Gary P Jackson

In the latest Hot Air poll of Conservatives, Senator Ted Cruz totally dominates the field. He’s the number one choice for President, and also leads in the “second choice” category, as well as the “consensus vote,” with totals of 35.40%, 22.20%, and 78.30% respectively:

While Hot Air’s rather exclusive, hard to join, members only, comment section has it’s share of loud Trump supporters, most readers aren’t as enthusiastic. On the other hand, most see Carly Fiorina as someone they could get behind, if Cruz fails to secure the bid. Trump, however was 5th on the second choice bid, and 8th on the reader’s consensus portion. Sarah Palin, who isn’t even an option among the 1st or 2nd choices, comes in at number 9 in consensus votes!

Speaking of Governor Palin, after almost a year of listing every single Republican that is still breathing, as an option … EXCEPT Palin … Hot Air finally asks readers:

If Sarah Palin was running, would you replace your first choice candidate and vote for Palin instead?

11% of Hot Air Readers said, yes they would. Not too shabby for someone who has shown zero interest in running!

Hot Air breaks down the count further and notes Cruz and Trump are, by far, the main benefactors of Governor Palin not being in the race.

I suspect any poll that asked a similar Palin question, would yield similar results and show that Cruz and Trump are the ones getting most of Palin’s supporters.

During the 2011 and early 2012 election season Governor Palin totally dominated Hot Air’s polling, right up until it became apparent she wasn’t running. Missed opportunity?

For a list of this survey’s polling questions click here.

For more polling results and analysis click here.

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Non-Candidate Palin Beats Gingrich and Romney in Latest Hot Air Poll Plus a Write-in Blow-out in Another

By Gary P Jackson

Tell me Conservatives are satisfied with the current crop of candidates.

In their monthly online survey Hot Air included a hypothetical match-up between Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich, and Mitt Romney. The results? Sarah Palin beats latest “flavor of the month” candidate Newt Gingrich 44% to 42%, with Mitt Romney coming in at an embarrassing 14%.

This is not surprising since Sarah won every Hot Air straw poll by impressive margins until it became obvious she wasn’t going to run for President.

There’s no love for Mitt at Hot Air, never has been, so there’s no surprise that he gets little support. This also shows that while some are buying into Newt’s line of BS, many are not.

Yeah, this is an online poll, but Hot Air does a good job of stopping attempts to manipulate the vote, unlike others, and it is a pretty good representation of Conservative sentiment around the country. When they were including interactive maps with their survey results, Sarah Palin was consistently the only potential candidate that had support nationwide.

You can see the complete results here.

Came across another interesting poll, asking if the election was held today, who would you vote for.

I’m can’t vouch for the integrity of this poll, so take it with a large dose of healthy skepticism.

That said, though Sarah Palin wasn’t officially listed as a candidate, she garnered a whopping 43% of the vote, as a write in. Newt Gingrich came in second with 15%. Herman Cain, who just “suspended” his campaign third with 14%.

For what it’s worth, the only other candidate in double digits is Ron Paul, with 12%. Since his supporters are known to spam every poll that doesn’t have sufficient safeguards, draw you own conclusions.

There is an interesting interactive map, that shows you who won where.

Sarah carried states like California, Oregon, and Washington, as well Florida, Virginia, Maine, and even New York.

Vodpod videos no longer available.

Since Sarah is not actually a candidate, nor will likely reconsider her decision, it’s hard to say, at this point, what this actually means for the GOP primaries. In my opinion it points to a Conservative base that doesn’t care for the choices that are in front of them. How that will play out in the end is anyone’s guess.

One thing is still crystal clear, had Sarah Palin chosen to run, she would have been the odds on favorite to be our nominee, and the 45th President of the United States. It’s also clear her supporters are having a difficult time finding someone they can get behind.

I can only speak for myself, but as a long time supporter of hers, I can’t find anyone who even meets one of the requirements needed to be acceptable as a candidate. We need, as Sarah puts it, sudden and relentless reform, and none of our candidates have embraced this at any time in their career. Worse, some of them wallow in the very corruption we must stop.

Lots of soul searching between now and November 2012.

We must remove Obama from office, but more importantly, we must replace him with a person of good character, and wisdom. We simply cannot elect another Washington insider, career politician, or morally and ethically challenged loser.

October Hot Air Straw Poll: Support For Rick Perry Collapses

By Gary P Jackson

If you’ve kept up with the Hot Air straw polling since November 2010, you’ll know Sarah Palin has won ever single poll by a wide margin, until last month. In September the “anybody but Sarah Palin, who isn’t Mitt Romney” contingent glommed onto Rick Perry as their latest “flavor of the month” giving him the win. Sarah came in second.

After watching Perry’s hapless performances in the debates, and finding out more about Perry’s record, the “anybody but Sarah Palin, who isn’t Mitt Romney” crowd has run en masse to Herman Cain, this month’s winner. Again Sarah comes in second.

The results:

Herman Cain 39%, Sarah Palin 32%, Rick Perry 12%, Mitt Romney 5%. The rest, including Michele Bachmann, Newt Gingrich, Chris Christie, and Mike Huckabee are below 5%.

The overwhelming choice for Vice President is Marco Rubio with 40% of the vote. Herman Cain comes in second with 14%. Allen West, who has been everyone’s favorite from the start, comes in tied for third with Newt Gingrich with 8% of the vote.

I’m not seeing the Rubio thing. As the U.S. Senate has so few actual Conservatives serving, I can’t follow the wisdom in wanting to remove one of them from office.

Hot Air also asks who would win a Palin vs Perry contest and a Palin vs Bachmann contest. The results are devastating to both Perry and Bachmann: Palin 62% Perry 38% and Palin 79% Bachmann 21%.

Read the full results here.

Having followed this series of straw polling for a year now, watching “flavor of the months” come and go, we are seeing self described conservative voters move completely away from undesirables like Michele Bachmann, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, and now Rick Perry. That leaves Herman Cain at the top.

Herman Cain has been a favorite before, though this is his first win. He was hot early in these monthly straw polls, then a series of gaffes and policy statements caught up with him. This polling will be interesting moving forward.

It’s notable that Sarah Palin’s support has steady and consistent throughout.

UPDATE:

Welcome Readers From Stacy McCain’s blog.

Sarah Palin Keeps Her 9 Month Long Hot Air Straw Poll Crush-a-Thon Streak Intact

By Gary P Jackson

This is actually the second Hot Air straw poll this month. The first one showed virtually the same results as this one, Sarah Palin crushing all comers, but the increasingly anti-conservative, anti-Palin website chose to spin some of her best results ever, as somehow a bad thing, and I was laughing so hard I simply couldn’t type a response to Patrick Ishmael’s drivel, and didn’t publish the results.

Here’s a link to that survey, you compare it with the latest, and find that Sarah’s support is once again stronger than ever. And, once again, Ishmael looked for an angle, so we get this nonsense in the new poll results:

The Approval results are in. Leading the pack when Presidential supporters are removed is Paul Ryan, followed by Michele Bachmann, Sarah Palin, John Bolton and Herman Cain.

Now Paul Ryan, whose budget plan is supported by Sarah …. she was the first to get on board …. is not a candidate for President, and has said in no uncertain terms that he will not be a candidate, and yet ….

Ishmael uses a plot device known as “average without presidential support” to create his little narrative. In other words, he bounces those who approve of a candidate, but do not support them for president, vs the ratings for the same candidates among those who do support them as a presidential candidate. This is how he is able to show someone who isn’t a candidate and will not be a candidate leading all comers, or so he CLAIMS, thus getting the headline he wants. This is a rather meaningless number though.

Either way, among actual and prospective candidates, Sarah Palin is the strongest, and getting stronger. In the presidential vote, out of a long list of 15 candidates [plus “other“] Sarah gets 38% of the vote, with Rick Perry, like Sarah, an undeclared candidate getting 23% of the vote.

Out of actual declared candidates, only Michele Bachmann breaks into double digits with 10% of the vote. Mitt Romney gets a whopping 7% of the vote.

The survey also looks at overall approval. They use a sliding scale 1-7, with 1 being the worst, and 7 being the best or “highly approve.”

Again, Sarah Palin is far and beyond the leader here with 49% rating her a 7 a “highly approve” rating. By contrast, out of potential or announced candidates, Rick Perry comes in second with 25%, and Bachmann 22%. The non-candidate, never will be candidate, Paul Ryan has a 30% “highly approve” rating. So much for Ishmael’s meme du jour.

Hot Air also has a couple of individual match-ups.

The most telling is the Palin/Bachmann contest. In the survey taken over the Fouth of July weekend it was Palin 52.18% Bachmann 47.82%. Now that folks have had almost a month of watching Bachmann, being Bachmann, the results are quite different. It’s now Palin 62% Bachmann 38%. It seems the more people see of Bachmann, the less inclined they are to support her, at least among Hot Air’s readership, 49% of which call themselves conservative with another 32% calling themselves “very conservative.”

HA also matches Rick Perry up with Tim Pawlenty, with Perry getting 78% over Pawlenty’s 22%. No surprise there.

In a Palin vs Perry match-up Sarah beats Rick 52% to 48% Which is the exact number Sarah was beating Bachmann by at the first of the month. I can’t quite bring myself to call my own governor a “flavor of the month” but once people see Rick Perry in action, and look into his record, look for his numbers to go down, though not as bad as Bachmann’s. [if he actually runs]

As always, straw polls are what they are, and any poll this early is little more than interesting entertainment. But they do show trends, and Sarah Palin has crushed all comers in these Hot Air polls since last November. In fact, her support only gets stronger. Hot Air has taken a leftward lurch, and become more of a GOP establishment house organ, since it’s founder Michelle Malkin sold the blog to the Salem group, but their readers are politically savvy and conservative. They are a very good representation of the base of the Republican Party.

The take away from the latest poll is no one is excited about the current Republican field. It’s very weak and has no one that can rally the troops to fight the Obama regime. None of the current declared candidates can beat Barack Obama. Rick Perry will definitely make a splash should he join the fray, but as people realize he is more of an establishment candidate, Donald Rumsfeld has been advising him, and Karl Rove is downright giddy at the prospect of Perry running, the bloom will come off the rose.

Sarah Palin is the only person who can rally the base and reach out to independents. Her record of governing in Alaska shows she knows how to work with a very diverse group to get incredible things done. As this latest polling shows once again, Sarah Palin has a base of support that would follow her through hell with a bucket of gasoline in each hand if that’s what it took. While it’s likely conservatives will hold their nose and vote for whoever the nominee is, should it not be Sarah, or even Rick Perry, folks will actually get out and campaign, knock doors, make phone calls, and so on, for Sarah Palin!

Before we go further, here are the results:

Ishmael also said this over the Fourth:

Whoever emerges between Perry and Bachmann will have the electoral advantage on Palin, who it appears has serious electoral maneuvering problems even among the base. Palin’s strength is the excitement of her supporters and the high commitment of those supporters to her. Her weakness is, simply, that there won’t be enough of them to carry her through the current field of primary candidates. I wrote back in 2009 that Palin’s most likely role in the 2012 cycle would be as a coronator. I still believe that’s basically right.

Ahh, the old “Sarah Palin should be a cheerleader and drag someone else’s sorry ass across the finish line” ploy. If you are so weak you need a kingmaker to get you through a campaign, you are too weak to be a king. Anyone who can be a kingmaker, can damned sure be the king.[or QUEEN]

From his ramblings, it’s obvious Ishmael doesn’t even read his own polls! Though he stopped asking the question once he learned the answer [over and over] his polling found that Palin supporters are strong and unwavering. Recent Gallup polling shows 52% Of Sarah Palin’s Supporters Certain “No Chance They’ll Change” Romney? Only 30% which backs up the results of earlier HA polls.

It seems not to matter to Ishmael that Palin has convincingly won every poll he’s taken as well. Ishmael requires all participants to include their zip code, and was publishing a nifty map that shows where a candidate’s support came from. It always showed Sarah’s support strong nationwide. This is likely why he no longer publishes the map, since his own research destroys the meme he’s trying to create.

Oh, and back to the cheerleader thing. You know who the cheerleaders are out of this bunch, actual cheerleaders?

Michele Bachman:

Rick Perry:

(THE AGGIELAND)

Rick Perry, far right, in the 1971 Texas A&M yearbook, The Aggieland. This is a photo of the Aggie Yell Leaders.

By contrast, Sarah Palin was point guard and co-captain of her team, and took the team to the state championship, scoring the winning shot. [on a broken foot no less] She’s number 22 in the photo:

Can we finally put this “cheerleader” nonsense to bed? Sarah Palin is a born leader. She successfully led a ball team, a city, and a state. She’s a real winner, and a champion. Winners become champions because they know how to win. Sarah Palin knows exactly how to beat Barack Obama and win the 2012 election. Better still, she has the skill to govern the nation once she gets there.

Sarah Palin Absolutely Crushes All In Latest Hot Air Reader Poll

By Gary P Jackson

Yet again Sarah Palin destroys all comers in the latest Hot Air straw poll, with 36.48% of the vote, compared to 14.07% for second place finisher, Texas Governor Rick Perry. Since January Hot Air has taken at least one, sometimes two of these polls monthly, and Sarah continues to absolutely own them. This poll was taken to measure the impact of the latest Republican debate.[which she did not attend]

Governor Palin also has the highest approval rating, with 48% saying they “highly approve.” Of those considered top tier candidates, Mitt Romney and Tim Pawlenty are tied for the lowest approval, with each getting a 7% “highly approve” rating. Newt Gingrich, no longer a serious contender, pulls in a whopping 1% of the “highly approve” nod.

Though these are in no way scientific, the moderator, Patrick Ishmael, does a good job making sure no one can spam these things, and also asks interesting questions. Hot Air tends to be a pretty good representation of Conservative thought, at least among it’s readers. 6056 people participated in the poll.

First, the overall results:

Something new, a few head-to-head match-ups:

In a Palin/Bachmann contest, the Governor beats Bachmann handily 56 to 44 percent. It’s a taste closer, but Sarah beats Rick Perry 54 to 46. Rick Perry crushes Tim Pawlenty 73 to 27.

As this chart shows, Governor Palin, represented by the top blue line, has been the one to beat since last November-December:

80 percent of Hot Air readers describe themselves as Conservative, including 32% very Conservative.

Read the full results here.

Sarah Palin Crushes All For 6th Straight Month In Hot Air Straw Poll

By Gary P Jackson

Hot Air runs a monthly straw poll of it’s readership. Once again Sarah Palin dominates a crowed field of Candidates. Rick Perry comes in second, Herman Cain a distant third. All of the rest are in the single digits, or worse:

There’s a neat interactive map at the website that shows where the candidates’ support comes from nationwide. Sarah Palin has supporters throughout the nation. For complete information click here.

This comes of the heals of national polling that shows Sarah is tied with Mitt Romney for 1st place, and crushing him among Conservatives. She also has the highest favorability rating of any candidate.

Sarah Palin Dominates Hot Air Presidential Straw Poll (Again)

By Gary P Jackson

Is Sarah Palin ready to join in with all of those card playing Republican Presidents above? We certainly think so, and so do the readers of Hot Air, the internet’s top Conservative website. For the 5th straight month Sarah has won the reader’s poll. And like the other 4 polls, it wasn’t even close. Over 6000 people voted for their choice for President and Vice President, with Allen West by far the choice for VP, out of a crowed field of contenders.

There are a lot of online polls, but not all polling is equal. Unlike some that can be spammed, Patrick Ishmael, who handles these for the website, has set up several safeguards to prevent cheating. Also, unlike most, these polls are consistently open for only a few days, not a month, or more. Regular readers are aware of this and vote consistently.

One thing else we like about the way Patrick does these polls is the information he gathers as well as the way he presents the results. This month he created a cool interactive map that shows where these votes came from. Looking at the various candidates, it’s very clear that Sarah Palin enjoys support from from every region of the country, strong support. Remember, these are Republican voters. If this polling is even close to representative, the Republican nomination is hers for the asking.

Click here to see the map, and then click on each candidate. It’s a real eye opener.

And now for the Results:

For President:

For Vice President:

Christie Fans Actually Upset with Governor Palin for Going “Unscripted”

By Stacy Drake

  “I’ve said several times at this point, if he ran, Christie would be my choice.” – DrewM.

After Governor Palin appeared on Fox Business Network this evening, some Chris Christie supporters (even though he has stated many times that he’s not running for president) were a little upset. DrewM, who is a blogger over on Ace of Spades, voiced his outrage on Twitter over the little swipe the governor took at Christie when she said:

And with all due respect to Governor Christie, you know he has no choice but to cut budgets because he’s broke, his state is broke. What courage really is, is in the face of having a surplus when you have opportunity to spend spend spend other people’s money, you still choose to reign in government to let the private sector soar. That’s real courage, and by the way that’s what I did as Governor here when I engaged in hiring freezes and reduced earmarks by 86% and vetoed the largest amounts in our state’s history. Despite having a surplus that’s real leadership and that’s courage.

But I do appreciate that Governor Christie is willing to face the reality in his state and that is that they are going bankrupt. So he has to cut, he has no choice.

DrewM responded:

Imagine how much more courageous she could have been if she hadn’t,um, what’s the word? Quit.

Oh really? Now if Drew were a brainwashed liberal, I could at least give him the benefit of knowing that he doesn’t know much. That’s just not the case however. Drew seems versed in the story of why Governor Palin resigned, when she did. He even stated:

I’ve heard it all before. It’s fine that she did it but she doesn’t get a pass for it. Actions have consequences

And

I think it was perfectly understandable on human level. It’s not fine in a political sense.

In other words, ‘I understand why she had to resign, it’s fine that she did, but I’m still going to attack her for it because hey, this is politics.’ Could he be anymore transparent?

Knowing people like DrewM (and his leftist counterparts) exist, Governor Palin took a huge risk resigning from her post. She did so for the good her state and the people who had elected her. A good leader leads, but when that same leader is put into a position where their own presence is causing insurmountable attacks on the very thing they’re supposed to be leading (which in her case was Alaska), that leader hands the reigns to someone who can carry out the agenda in peace. It was unselfish and the right thing to do.

A typical politician would have rode out the storm for their own career’s sake. They would have had the people who financed them thus far, pay their legal bills, and would have no doubt had the support of their party to help them along the way. Governor Palin is no typical politician, which is why she came under such heavy attack in the first place.

Republicans should be seeking strong leadership. Governor Palin proved what a good leader she is by her record in office. She also proved the ability to make tough decisions, with the best interest of her constituents in mind. That is exactly what she did by resigning. In my view, that is a positive. It only appears to be a negative when political rivals spin it and repeat the words “quit!”

AllahPundit also weighed in on the governor’s interview. He posted an interesting exit question, in which he said:

How is it that a Republican governor in a deeply Democratic state like Jersey is showing little courage by tackling unions and pension reform? The government may be broke, but Christie theoretically could go the Democratic route and push tax hikes or float bonds rather than demand cuts. And why do we assume that he’d have done differently than Palin did if he had the chance to govern a state — a red state, where he has an electoral advantage — with a surplus?

Answer: Chris Christie wouldn’t get elected in a red state.

According to Conservative New Jersey, Christie’s record is anything but. They post a list of “words and deeds” that punch holes in the narrative that his supporters have been touting:

• His budget passed only after three conservative Republicans were bullied into voting for it and the savings achieved in the budget were done at the expense of new taxes, new fees, federal Stimulus funds and accounting gimmicks; the 2% property tax cap will actually cause taxes to skyrocket; he has yet to propose the “across the board” tax cuts he promised as a candidate; the budget actually INCREASES state expenditures by 6% and the number of staff in the Governor’s office making $100,000 per year increases by ten;
• His confrontation with the unions is pure Kabuki theater with nothing accomplished but acrimony; he has yet to lay off a single state employee and his proposed 2011 state worker reduction plan is little more than window dressing;
• He has populated his cabinet with notorious liberals while firing the only true conservative – after slandering him;
• He has endorsed notorious RINO candidates in the 2010 mid-term election while avoiding (with one notable exception) contact with conservative candidates;
• He supports a multi-state Cap & Trade scheme known as the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative and is so committed to Cap & Trade that he used funds raised from RGGI’s carbon auctions to help balance the budget; he has directed that state funds be appropriated to subsidize “green” technology ventures such as off-shore windmills;
• He has refused to join other state attorneys-general in a joint lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Obamacare while accepting federal funds for the implementation of a similar program on a statewide level;
• He is on record saying that he does not believe illegal aliens are here illegally; he has indicated that he supports amnesty for illegals; he generally favors strict gun control and he supports construction of the Ground Zero Mosque even as he condemns those who oppose it.

Not exactly the record of anyone I would have ever suspected Ann Coulter to support, but I digress…

While Governor Palin’s words may have made Christie’s fans cranky, there is no question that she was correct in her analysis. Just ask any Californian (like myself) who has been watching Jerry Brown these first few months of his administration. He’s been making cuts, and making enemies because he HAS to. His record and even his budget are far from a conservative ideal model, but he is responding by making some necessary changes. He doesn’t have a choice considering the fiscal mess the state is in.

Christie has said he won’t run for president, but I’m sure the governor would welcome him to the race. For one thing, if she does decide to run, it will be nice to have another not-so Conservative candidate to thin out the others in the GOP pool. We as her supporters would also welcome the fact that these Republicans wouldn’t be able to recycle another leftist meme by saying she isn’t experienced. She has almost two decades of public service under her belt. How many does Christie have?

Chris Christie has taken unnecessary swipes at Governor Palin in the past. So, it wasn’t out of line for her to return some fire and do so by exposing Christie for who he is.

Mark Levin, who has been trying to warn Conservatives about Chris Christie for some time, also weighed in. I leave you with his words.

Post CPAC Straw Poll: Sarah Palin And Allen West Are “Winning The Future” … Big Time!

By Gary P Jackson

After the circus at CPAC, including the embarrassment of Ron Paul winning yet another straw poll, a reality check is sorely needed.

As usual, Ron Paul’s political action committee purchased large blocks of tickets to CPAC, reselling them at a serious loss, so his rowdy bunch could get to DC and vote for him. This is standard operating procedure for the good doctor. Mitt Romney, who finished second, has been known to buy a straw poll or two himself.

With that in mind, Patrick Ishmael over at Hot Air put together a straw poll of his own. We don’t normally report on online polls, but Patrick took extra care to make sure there was only one vote per customer. While not a scientific poll, it does a great amount of enthusiasm for Sarah Palin, among readers of one of the top center-right websites.

Sarah garnered 37 percent of the votes, with the closest competitor, Chris Christie, coming in a very distant second at 11%.

Maintaining her position from our last poll in December, Sarah Palin again stomps the Hot Air Presidential field by a wide and comfortable margin.

[ …. ]

Since this latest poll was initially faced with a fair amount of ACORN-style fake-votery, let me say up front that Palin’s numbers are absolutely legitimate: her block of voters is one of the most active on the web, and they turned out in force for this survey.

In second place is Chris Christie, who also fell in behind Palin in December. Third place is, surprisingly, Mitch Daniels, doubling his percentage take from 5% of the vote last time to 10% this time. A surprising fourth place also goes to Herman Cain, the only candidate really in the race right now, at 8%. I think there’s little doubt that Daniels and Cain benefited from a sort of CPAC-bounce; Christie, still a GOP rock star, may have been hurt by being out of the limelight in the last couple of months. Mitt Romney comes in at fifth, slightly strengthening over his last showing, from 5% to 6%.

Besides the obvious “who do you want to be President?” question, Patrick crafted some interesting side questions as well. One of those asked: “How committed are you to your candidate?“:

Online zeal does not necessarily make for eventual Presidents, but it may say something about commitment and a little about the size of the movement. (But not always.) Sarah Palin’s numbers bear out both of these points, notably the former one; while 54% of the average candidate’s supporters consider themselves “very committed” backers, 82% of Sarah Palin voters consider themselves “very committed.”

This is an interesting metric. It confirms what most Palin supporters already knew. Once you join the team, you are not likely to look at other options. Sarah Palin’s long record of success, and compelling history, translates into strong support. The kind that will work hard in 2012 to make things happen.

Something else. Since the other candidate’s strongest supporters barely break the 50% mark, the chances for Sarah Palin to pick up even more support, once she starts actually campaigning is very good. Better than the rest, for certain.

The poll also asks who should be Vice President. This wasn’t close either, nor surprising. Allen West is the overwhelmingly choice for her Vice President!.

That would make for quite the formidable ticket.

Check out all of the results from the poll here.

Hot Air’s Top Post Of 2010: Sarah Palin Tied With Barack Obama In 2012 Presidential Polling

By Gary P Jackson

‘Tis the season for looking back and making lists. Ed Morrissey over at Hot Air, one of the leading political blogs in the country, has been posting the Top 50 stories on their blog for 2010. This is based on the amount of traffic each story generated.

The top story covered polling conducted by democrat firm Public Policy Polling [PPP] that showed Sarah Palin and Barack Obama were tied at 46 points a piece.

From Ed:

The only Palin post in the top 10 this year, this post reviewed the data from a Democratic-leaning pollster, Public Policy Polling, from July. Not only did this poll find Palin locked up with Obama, but also found that Obama trailed the other major would-be contenders from the GOP. The sample even had a +5 Democratic advantage, and still Obama couldn’t do any better in head-to-heat matchups than 46%.

Check out Hot Air’s greatest hits of 2010 here.

Although any polling two years out from an election should be taken with a huge grain of salt, it must be noted that people who think Sarah Palin can’t beat Barack Obama in 2012 will be in for a rude awakening!

Here’s a poll heavily weighted with democrats [+5] and at best, it’s a draw, and Sarah Palin hasn’t even started campaigning yet.

In case you are wondering, the number two most read story of 2010 was the one about democrat Congressman Hank Johnson, who was concerned that overpopulation in Guam might cause the tiny island to capsize! BTW, Johnson is one of the smart ones!

No other potential 2012 presidential candidates made the Top 10. Only Sarah Palin.