A new poll by The Politico has some good news for Democrats and President Barack Obama and some bad news for Republicans and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin in particular:

It finds:

*President Barack Obama has emerged as the most trusted figure in American politics.

*Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has emerged as the political figure perceived as the most untrustworthy.

*More people trust the Democrats to come up with solutions than the Republicans.

This poll is significant because it’ll be hard for GOPers to discount it as coming from a leftist or Democratic publication or from a polling company suspected of skewering the poll in favor of Democrats. It also fits in with other polls that continue to show Obama with a high poll rating which is partially due to him having pieced together a coalition of Democrats, independents and Republicans who aren’t into the talk show political culture (in other words: Republicans who won’t be attending tomorrow’s tea parties..). Here are some details from the poll:

Three months into his presidency, Barack Obama stands out as perhaps the most trusted figure in American politics. In a new Public Strategies Inc./POLITICO national survey of 1,000 registered voters, Obama outdistances figures on both the left and the right in earning the public’s trust, with two-thirds of respondents saying they trust the president “to identify the right solutions to the problems we face as a nation.” Of those who said they trust the president, 31 percent said they trust him “a great deal.” An additional 35 percent said they have “some” trust that Obama will find the correct solution. Thirty-one percent said they trust Obama either “not very much” or “not at all.” Voters were asked the same question of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Republican Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, former Massachusetts Republican Gov. Mitt Romney, conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh and the two major political parties. Among those choices, only the Democratic Party was trusted to find the right solutions by a majority of voters, 52 percent to 40 percent. Forty percent of those surveyed said they trusted the Republican Party, compared with 54 percent who did not trust the GOP.

The bad news for the Republicans is that they are not trusted by a large number of Americans that means a large number of Americans are tuning out their message. And looking at Pelosi and Palin? The Politico found this:

Only 26 percent said they trust Pelosi, the lowest total in the group. Palin attracted the highest percentage of those who did not trust her at all to identify the right solutions, topping Pelosi 33 percent to 32 percent. Romney got a mixed reaction, with 38 percent of voters saying they trust him and 39 percent saying they don’t.

So far there are no indications Pelosi is eying the White House. And there are indications Palin is. So Palin has a lot of work to do since imagery counts in politics and just winning over part of the GOP won’t suffice.