The Politico, which proved to be completely in the tank for now president-elect Barack Obama during the campaign, reports that the Republican Party is “gearing up for 2012.”

“Votes are still being counted in some races in last Tuesday’s election, but no matter: Talk of the potential Republican field in the 2012 presidential election is already underway,” the new media outlet’s Jonathan Martin writes.

“Two potential candidates will be in Iowa before month’s end, multiple prospects — almost certainly including Sarah Palin — will make high-profile appearances next week at the Republican Governors Association (RGA) meeting, and Newt Gingrich’s name has already been floated in a Bob Novak column.

“For a party anxious to move past a brutal election up and down the ballot, and especially a presidential campaign it would just as soon forget, it’s not too soon to start thinking about ‘next time,’ as the pros call it.”

Quite some Republican politicians publicly say they are not willing to even think about 2012, let alone talk about it. Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee said, for instance: “That’s way too far away.”

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, agrees: “I’m going to tell you something. One of the worst things that can happen to the Republican Party in our effort to rebuild is for a bunch of people to start running for president. Anybody harboring that ambition needs to squelch it until after 2010. … Anybody out there running for president is undercutting what’s important. You do this against your own interest.”

But the fact of the matter is, of course, that Republicans everywhere are thinking about 2012. Names are already being floated around. Gingrich is considered an option by Novak. Sarah Palin is the darling of the (social) conservative base, and potential frontrunner for the party’s nomination in 2012. Mitt Romney too is often mentioned as likely future leader of the party that lost so many seats in Congress this month and the presidential election.

Huckabee is certainly a future option as well, of course. He was the Christian conservative’s base darling this year. Romney was his main opponent: Huckabee seemed to be OK with a John McCain victory, but he truly hated and despised Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, who was the favorite candidate of the fiscal conservative but social moderate or even liberal faction of the party.

Whoever turns out to be the party’s frontrunner in 2012, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal is also often mentioned as a man for the future, it is clear that Republicans are rightfully focusing on the future, wondering what man or woman can make their party victorious once again. The public talk about not thinking about 2012 is not more than that: talk. Everybody is looking towards 2012, and the most amibitious Republican politicians are positioning themselves for it.