The poll from the Economist included Palin. That’s why it’s more worthwhile.
“Some other candidate” isn’t a choice in the first question asked in the Rasmussen poll:
“1* If the 2012 Republican Primary for President were held today would you vote for Mitt Romney, Ron Paul, Tim Pawlenty, Newt Gingrich, Michele Bachmann, Rick Santorum, Herman Cain or Jon Huntsman?”
Worthless.
It’s not worthless. Those are the declared candidates right now. Let Palin jump in and then include her in polls. Otherwise we might as well include Paul Ryan, Jim DeMint and Marco Rubio in these polls too.