Palin: Obama Would Love to Run Against Romney

GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, FOX NEWS HOST: Will this be a wake-up call for the Republican candidates? While they are focused on attacking each other, their ultimate rival, President Obama, may be slipping right past them.

A new poll shows President Obama's numbers are going up in head-to-head match-ups against the GOP front-runners. According to the poll, if the election were held today, President Obama would win 51 percent of the vote against Governor Mitt Romney. The president would win with 54 percent against former speaker of the House Newt Gingrich.

So is dragging out the nominating process hurting the GOP? Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin joins us. Good evening, Governor.

SARAH PALIN, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR/FORMER ALASKA GOVERNOR: Hi, Greta. How are you?

VAN SUSTEREN: Very well. So Governor, what do you make of the fact that the polls show that the president is slipping upward at the moment?

PALIN: Unfortunately, I think that's some collateral damage for the GOP through our nominating process, as the guys, the four who are left are kind of beating each other up instead of focusing on the main thing. The main thing is providing Americans really good reasons why we can oppose President Obama in November, what it is that they have to offer in terms of solutions.

Right now, I believe they've kind of ignored what that focus should be, except in their speeches the night of primaries and caucuses. Then they all kind of refocus on trying to defeat Obama. But we need to make sure that they are using the debate platform that they have through the nominating process to focus on Obama.

VAN SUSTEREN: Well, if you look at the turnout, Iowa was relatively flat from 2008, and Florida was down about 12 percent. It doesn't seem like there's a groundswell of enthusiasm within the Republican Party. Doesn't look like they're attracting a lot of Republicans or a lot of independents to the Republican Party. I don't sense that glowing enthusiasm.

PALIN: That glowing enthusiasm isn't there yet. I believe a lot of that is in part the idea that it's a forgone conclusion that Mitt Romney will be the GOP pick. He certainly has the establishment support and much of the media support.

I also believe that he is the one that President Obama would love to debate and to run against in November. So I think that that kind of tamps down that enthusiasm that no doubt we'll see again, and all of us will do as much as we can to build that enthusiasm back up after our nominee is chosen.