WOODBURY, N.Y. — Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin said Thursday that she is still considering running for president in 2012, despite getting her “butt kicked” in polls.

“I’m still thinking about it, I certainly haven’t made up my mind,” she told an audience gathered at an event in Woodbury, N.Y., sponsored by the Long Island Association, the largest business organization in the region.

Asked who she might support in 2012 if she decides not to run, Palin demurred.

“I don’t have a name to give you right now, but what I would look for in terms of character and in terms of experience is someone who’s been on the front lines understanding how to administer and how to lead a team and how to run a business,” she said. “Gosh, nobody’s more qualified for multitasking and doing all the things you need to do as president than a woman, a mom.”

The former governor said that campaigning on the ground in the early states was important, but maintained that this cycle’s late start left room for an unconventional run. “That’s what ‘going rogue’ is all about,” she said, adding, “again, I’m not saying it’s going to be me.”

Palin also responded to a question about why her poll numbers tend to show voters having a negative opinion of her.

“I think in a lot of those polls I get my butt kicked, I don’t do well in a lot of those polls,” she said. “I don’t think I’ve ever gone through more negative press than I did after Tucson,” she continued, referring to the shooting on Jan. 8 in which six people were killed and 14 injured, including Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.).

In the aftermath of the shooting, Palin was criticized for a 2010 election ad by her political action committee that put a “crosshairs” graphic over several Democratic districts, including Gifford’s, leading some to question whether heated public discourse had contributed to the violence.

She later defended herself from the charges in an interview, saying that the media has accused her of a “blood libel.”

“I’m not blaming that incident for my poor poll numbers, they are what they are,” she said. However, she noted that the “liberal-leaning press” had certainly had something to do with the perception among voters that she was unqualified to be president.

Palin’s announcement last week that she had hired a new chief of staff – Michael Glassner, a former aide to ex-Senator Bob Dole – set tongues wagging in Washington about her potentially gearing up for a 2012 run.

However, Palin said that the chief reason for hiring him was mainly to lighten the workload of her husband, Todd, who up to now had been handling most of her affairs.

“Todd’s getting kind of tired of doing it all for me,” she said. “So we hired a chief of staff for practical logistical reasons and it’s been heavenly to have someone besides Todd helping me out.”

On other topics, Palin criticized the Obama administration for its handling of the situation in Egypt, saying, “we had a lot of confusion in the White House about that.”

She also mentioned First Lady Michelle Obama’s advocacy of breast-feeding, saying, “No wonder Michelle Obama’s telling everybody, ‘you’d better breastfeed your baby.’ Yeah, you’d better because the price of milk is so high right now!”

On the subject of the health care overhaul, Palin said she still believed in a full repeal of the law, noting “I have great heartburn over Obamacare.” She said she worries about the rationing of health care under the new system, noting that it would force the government to make decisions about who should and should not receive care.

Mentioning her own son, Trigg — who was born with Down’s Syndrome — she said “maybe he wouldn’t receive part of that care. That to me is immoral and unethical and I don’t want government to sanction that.”

She also stuck to her mantra of “drill baby, drill,” saying that it made sense not to rely on foreign regimes that “can use energy as a weapon against us.”

She added that since America had the best safety standards of any country in the world, it was also more environmentally-friendly to tap America’s own natural resources, and would also result in more jobs being created in the US.