While we’re waiting for the polls to close in Massachusetts, let’s talk about Sarah Palin.

I’m having a little trouble with this CBS News poll:

A new CBS News poll finds that a large majority of Americans say they do not want former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin to run for president.

There’s more, of course, but let’s stop here for a second: they didn’t ask about any other potential candidates for president. Republican, Democrat, whatever. Nobody.

I’d bet that a “large majority” of Americans will say they don’t want any name to run for president. Heck, only 37% say they’d vote for Obama right now.

Is this poll result really so surprising?

Specifically, 71 percent say they do not want the former Republican vice presidential nominee to run for president, while 21 percent say they do want her to run.

Again, that might mean something, if those numbers are significantly different from other potential candidates. But we don’t know whether they’re different, because CBS didn’t ask about any other candidates.

When the results are split out by party, 56 percent of Republicans say they do not want her to seek the office and 30 percent do.

Huh. And then:

Forty-three percent of Republicans have a favorable opinion of her.

Okay, that number seems a little on the low side, but fine. Allahpundit says:

…if 44 percent of Republicans do want her to run, that’s … a fairly sizable chunk of primary voters, no?

He got his numbers mixed up, there: it’s 30 percent of Republicans who want her to run, and 43 percent who have a favorable opinion of her. But his analysis is right: those are great numbers for a candidate starting out in a presidential primary.

Via Memeorandum.

Polls suck.