Reporters remain infatuated with Fox News' Sarah Palin and the promise she holds (media-wise) for the 2012 campaign season. New York magazine just published a lengthy cover story detailing the (not believable) path Palin could take all the way to the White House.

But what's most often, and conveniently, ignored or dismissed in the incessant Palin coverage is just how unpopular she is. And how she actually seems to becoming less popular with voters as time passes by. Suffice to say, it's hard to recall the last national politician who was rewarded with more media attention while they simultaneously became less popular, but Palin manages to pull off the trick.

And that's why the results from Doug Schoen's latest poll likely won't garner much attention [emphasis added]:

Schoen found that a slight majority, 51 percent, favor a third party in American politics and if that were the Tea Party, then Obama would win in a three-way race in 2012. According to Schoen, if the race pitted Obama, Republican Mitt Romney and Tea Party favorite Sarah Palin in 2012, Obama would top the others with 40 percent; Romney gets 32 percent and Palin 17 percent. And, in a bit of bad news for Palin, if the Tea Party candidate were Mike Huckabee, he and Romney would split the non-Obama vote 24 percent-24 percent.

Will there likely be a three-way race for president in 2012? I doubt it. But is it telling that when given the choice between Obama, Romney and Palin, just 17 percent pick her? It is. And is it even more telling that Mike Huckabee easily out-performed Palin in the same polling scenario? Yes.

But shh, just don't tell the press.