Polls about prospective presidential candidates are mostly meaningless at this early point in the primary process. (My favorite meaningless are the ones that pit President Obama against a generic Republican candidate in an election, which basically means "imagine the awesomest Republican you can, who believes everything you believe. Now that imaginary Republican is running for president. Who do you vote for?") But Hot Air took a look at a poll that explores what happens if certain Republicans don't run, and the results are interesting:

If neither Huckabee nor Palin runs you have a tie at the top between Gingrich and Romney at 24%, with Ron Paul in 3rd place at 12%. Gingrich gains ground because 35% of Palin’s voters would go to him while only 19% of them would move to the Romney camp if she didn’t run. More of Huckabee’s voters would go to Gingrich than Romney also but it’s by a much closer margin, just 26-23…

There's more there, examining the race with Huckabee but without Palin and with Palin but without Huckabee. Huckabee and Palin are the shit-stirrers in this race for sure, and they probably inspire a more rabid response in their followers than the more intellectual Gingrich and the more mainstream-feeling Romney. But they're also the candidates with the highest visibility because of their Fox News appearances. (This is why Donald Trump is polling so high right now; because people have heard of him. I expect those numbers to plummet when the race become more, you know, real.) This poll isn't much of a guarantee of anything, but it does prove that Gingrich and Romney have a long way to go to drum up the kind of enthusiasm that other potential candidates have.

In other polling news, Sarah Palin's numbers are plummeting among Republicans. Again, I don't think this means much, but it sure is fun to read.