Poll: Iowa GOP would back Palin

DES MOINES, Iowa, Nov. 23 (UPI) -- Iowa Republicans would support a run by Sarah Palin for the 2012 presidential nomination, The Des Moines Register's Iowa Poll released Monday indicated.

Palin, the 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate and former Alaskan governor, will visit the Hawkeye State in December as part of her national tour to promote her memoir, "Going Rogue."

The poll to test Palin's strength in the lead-off nominating state found 55 percent of all Iowans polled hold an unfavorable opinion of Palin a little more than a year after the last election.

Among Republicans, however, more than two-thirds of respondents indicated they like what they see and ear, making her a credible candidate for the 2012 caucuses if she decides to run for president, the Register said.

Eight percent of all Iowans said they were unsure about Palin.

Sixty-eight percent of Iowa Republicans said they view Palin favorably, near the 70 percent who hold favorable views of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who won the 2008 Iowa caucuses, the newspaper said. Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich polled 66 percent while former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, runner-up in the 2008 state caucuses, was viewed favorably by 58 percent of the Iowa Republicans.

"These numbers put her in a position where she can obviously look at Iowa," said David Winston, a national Republican pollster. "But she has this big jump that she's got to overcome. People like her personally on the Republican side, but there's this policy substance question."