Rush: Wake up, GOP!

Rush Limbaugh takes a look at the most recent Gallup Poll and says that Republicans should stop letting the media drive their perceptions of Sarah Palin:

We have too many people in our party who allow media to influence what they think of our own candidates, and they're looking at it the wrong way... The liberals, the left, the Drive-By Media, they are telling us who our nomination should be! They are telling us who they are most afraid of... Name for me one Republican candidate who has maintained a 72% approval rating while their life and their career has been under assault for the purpose of destruction, which is the case with Sarah Palin... If there are any of you wimpy, wishy-washy Republicans out there who so desperately want to have a candidate that the sophisticates in the media in Washington and New York approve of, you are guaranteed to secure the Republican Party defeat after defeat after defeat. If you're going to let them pick our nominee -- which happened last time, by the way.

Our friend Bill at Governor Palin for President 2012 also posted on this today:

72% of respondents said they approved of Sarah Palin, while 56% approved of Romney and 59% approved of Huckabee.

Those numbers are huge and depict the misunderstood reality of today's political environment. While Romney is leading Palin in the race with 3 years left to go, Palin's popularity remains astronomical. This despite the very high-profile and sustained attack on her character by liberals and elites in the conservative movement for almost a year now. One could say that Palin stands as a sort of Reaganite Teflon girl in the face of these attacks.

Romney, on the other hand, can't seem to spend his way to popularity. After running for president for several years now and sinking millions of his own dollars into his quest, he still comes up as average at best in polling.

Update: Don Surber says Palin's still number one:

A new Gallup Poll confirmed Pew Research’s finding last month that more Republicans like Sarah Palin than Mitt Romney.

Grassroots die hard.

Last month, Pew Research found that Palin was far more popular among Republicans than Romney.

Surber finds it "astounding" that Gov. Palin's supporters stayed with her after she announced that she would resign. We don't. While we can't speak for all of Sarah Palin's fans, the sense we get is for many of them is that there simply is no second choice.

- JP