Don’t run, Sarah Palin, don’t run! Republicans, tea partiers want her to steer clear of 2012, new poll says

As Sarah Palin heads to the early voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire, Republicans around the country are eagerly awaiting any news regarding her plans for a potential presidential campaign.

Or are they?

Overwhelming majorities of Republicans, including self-identified conservatives and tea party members, do not want Palin to run for president, according to a new poll from Fox News.

Seventy-one percent of the registered Republicans who were surveyed from Aug. 29 to Aug. 31 said Palin, the former Alaska governor who was John McCain's running mate in 2008, should sit out the 2012 race. Just 25 percent said they believe she should run.

The margin of error was plus or minus 5.5 percentage points.

Among tea partiers, 66 percent did not want Palin to run for president, and 72 percent said they did not want her to mount a campaign.

Palin is scheduled to appear this weekend at events in Iowa and New Hampshire that are sponsored by tea party organizations.

Palin will not make any announcements over the Labor Day holiday about whether she plans to run for president, sources tell The Corner, ABC News and other news outlets. Instead, they say, she will use her speeches to defend the tea party and criticize President Obama.

The poll offered some good news for Palin: 8 percent of Republican primary voters said she was their first choice to be the Republican presidential nominee in 2012. That put her in third place behind Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who received the support of 26 percent of Republican primary voters, and Mitt Romney, who garnered 18 percent.

Ron Paul came in fourth, at 7 percent, a showing that is nearly indistinguishable, statistically, from Palin's.