Palin..........if she runs, is a STELLAR GOP CANDIDATE !
All of those who venture into the GOP primaries, with any guts, will take it to The Donald, as will the MSM.
The reason that Trump is making some headway, is because a whole lot of naive people are thrilled to pieces that he is hammering away at Obama ( even though he neither knows nor understand the entire thing with the BC, or the school stuff ) and saying the same dumb things that they would like to be able to say to the public at large. And THAT doesn't make him worthy of being president at all; in fact, it is a minus!
You are aware that FR is a small sample for the general mood of the electorate. Most people I run into who are generic GOP or mildly Conservative/Libertarian like Trump. When queried, they usually all come to his business experience. No one cares who he donated to or that he may be a Trojan Horse. People are scared about the economy. Believe it or not but most people don't read FR or even the Drudge Report. His current polling has him in the top tier which proves out my anecdotal evidence.
You can put all your hopes and dreams into Palin, but as of now she isn't running and from the contention here on various threads, no one even knows if she is thinking about it. One could also make a strong argument that she would lose to Obummer because of all the damage she has received over the past 3 years from the MSM.
You can hate him all you want, but for right now he seems to be the only candidate with a pulse.