Despite months of political and media campaigns targeting her and her family, Sarah Palin does surprisingly well in favorability ratings, according to the findings of a Gallup Poll published today.

That same study reveals Mitt Romney with only a 26% to 21% lead over Palin as the top choice for the GOP nomination in 2012. The study sampled Republicans and Republican-leaning independents.

Here's a relevant paragraph from Gallup:

While Palin trails Romney in the current candidate preference test, she leads both him and Huckabee in terms of their respective favorable ratings among Republicans. Currently, 72% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents have a favorable opinion of Palin, compared with 56% for Romney and 59% for Huckabee. But her lead on this measure largely reflects the fact that she is better known than the two former governors, given the substantially lower "no opinion" figures for her.

Upshot: The door remains open for a Palin effort to secure the GOP nomination in 2012. It won't be handed to her, and it shouldn't be.

However, Americans already are looking for statesmen to articulate an authentic defense of Declarational and Constitutional principles -- to draw a line in the sand against Washington-centric federal tryanny, but also to lay down a marker for progress in human dignity and freedom. 

No American who challenges the secular status quo, who poses a threat to meaningless "living Constitutions" and the absurd "rights-creation industry," can expect an easy go of it.

Whether we are talking about pastors burned at stakes, pilgrims crossing oceans, or Founders revolting for freedom against the tyranny of a distant but oppressive regime, the struggle for independence in community with our true Creator is always hard-fought but worth every ounce of effort, blood, sweat -- and you know the rest. 

The job of the rogue federal Goliath and its enablers is to spear any entity that smacks of "David." And so let us ask: Who among us might pledge their sacred honor with the Davids of this land? Freedom so-called is never so cheap than when it costs nothing. Her currency is sacrifice.

As the Gallup study shows, Palin already is a player in 2012. More importantly: The rest of us should be as well.

Related:
Why the GOP Elite Despises Sarah Palin
Sadism Watch: Sarah Palin vs. the Marquis de Sade