Sarah Palin, 2012 Republican Presidential Candidate | featured news

Out with Sarah. In with The Donald. President Barack Obama has launched his re-election bid in a low-key manner, but the Republican Party's search for a challenger seems stranger by the day.

Donald Trump is gaining more momentum ahead of his potential 2012 presidential run. A new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll out today finds Trump tied with Mike Huckabee atop the field of potential GOP White House contenders. According to the poll, Trump and Huckabee both garner 19 percent support among likely GOP voters. Sarah Palin comes in second, with 12 percent, while Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich are tied atthird, with 11 percent support each.

Over the last few weeks, Washington conventional wisdom has begun to coalesce around the idea that Sarah Palin won't run for president. A number of news outlets and commentators have pointed out that she isn't doing the sorts of things that serious candidates usually do at this point in the calendar, hiring veteran staffers in the key early primary states, visiting those states regularly, and delivering speeches that begin to lay one's "vision" for the country. Roger Ailes of Fox News pointedly did not suspend her contract, as he did those of two other candidates, because, he said, she has given no sign that she is planning a campaign.