The Hill News

President Obama would trounce former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) in a hypothetical matchup for the 2012 presidential election, a new poll found Tuesday.

Obama leads Palin, the 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate who may run for president in two years, by a 16-point margin, the Bloomberg News National Poll found.

Fifty-one percent of likely voters said they would vote to re-elect Obama in a hypothetical matchup against Palin, who drew the support of 35 percent of likely voters.

Ten percent said they likely would not vote in an Obama-Palin contest, and four percent said they were not sure.

Question marks had long hung over what Palin's intentions for the 2012 election might be. But the former governor's efforts to bolster a number of Republican candidates for office this cycle -- ! many of them affiliated with the conservative, activist Tea Party movement -- have allowed her to build up a base of support within the GOP for a potential run for higher office.

Palin herself has begun to push open the door further toward waging a challenge to Obama. She said in late September that she would run "in the name of service to the public" if no other adequate candidate were to step forward.

But if Palin were to run, she still might have to address her polarizing public image, and the public's doubts about her fitness for office. The Bloomberg poll found that she has a 38 percent favorable rating, and a 54 percent unfavorable rating. And nearly three out! of five Americans -- including 47 percent of Republicans -- s! aid they doubt whether Palin would be an effective president, according to the September 60 Minutes/Vanity Fair poll.

The Bloomberg poll, conducted Oct. 7-10, has a 3.7 percent margin of error.