The Pit Bull Snarls Again

Reported shade of lipstick? Blood red!

RUN, SARAH, RUN!
POLL: 64% OF GOP PICKS HER FOR 2012

By CARL CAMPANILE
Posted: 5:41 am
November 8, 2008

Sarah Palin may be back in ice cold Alaska, but new polling data shows she's red hot in the hearts of Republicans, as more than two-thirds want her to be the presidential nominee in 2012.

After getting the polling boost, Palin showed her pit-bull side yesterday by blasting her detractors as "cowards" and "jerks" who spread lies behind her back.

Palin's angry words came in response to anonymous GOP insiders who claimed she's blundering numbskull, unaware that Africa was a continent and ignorant of the countries that signed the North American Free Trade Agreement.

"I consider it cowardly" that they stayed anonymous, she said.

"If there are allegations based on questions or comments that I made in debate prep about NAFTA, and about the continent vs. the country when we talk about Africa there, then those were taken out of context," she said.

"That's cruel, It's mean-spirited. It's immature. It's unprofessional and those guys are jerks if they came away with it, taking things out of context and then tried to spread something on national news. It's not fair, and it's not right."

She also slammed critics who ripped her allegedly diva-like behavior, including amassing a $150,000 wardrobe during the campaign with party money.

"I never asked for anything more than a Diet Dr. Pepper once in a while," she said, returning to the Alaska Governor's Office.

"Those are the RNC's clothes. They're not my clothes. I never forced anybody to buy anything."

But the insults have apparently done little to harm her image with the party faithful.

A new Rasmussen Reports poll said 64 percent of GOP voters would support a White House run for Palin in 2012. Sixty-nine percent believe she helped the 2008 GOP White House ticket as John McCain's running mate.

Only 20 percent said she hurt the ticket. Meanwhile, 71 percent said McCain made the right choice by choosing the 44-year-old governor as his running mate.

Palin obliterates Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney in a hypothetical 2012 matchup.

Moreover, 91 percent of Republicans have a positive view of Alaska's governor. And 65 percent said they intensely like her.

While firing up the GOP base, she turned off other voters who believed she lacked experience to serve in the White House. For example, 57 percent of independents and 81 percent of Democrats had an unfavorable view of her.

"While Palin's high favorables suggest she had a bright political future in the Republican Party," pollster Scott Rasmussen said, "it is important to note that favorites four years out from a presidential election quite often do not get the nomination."

Campaign insiders told The Post that some of the top decision makers around McCain - including those who recommended Palin for the ticket - are now trying to salvage their own reputations by scapegoating her for the defeat.

"There's an element of 'CYA' - cover your ass - going on here," said one source.

carl.campanile@nypost.com