Confirmation of just how poor the 2012 Republican presidential field is comes in a poll from the Wall Street Journal and NBC, showing Donald Trump coming in second among Republicans.

If Republicans were depressed about the 2012 contest then the news that Trump gets support from 17% of voters - putting him second behind perma-candidate Mitt Romney on 21% - might make them think about jumping off Trump Tower.

In fact if they read this far into the WSJ article they might be tempted to end it all:

Trump "may be a punchline but when he talks about the way to solve our problems, he makes a lot of sense to the average guy out there," said Todd Mauney, a conservative Republican in Weatherford, Texas. "I don't know if people can get over him being the butt of every joke but for me, he can be serious when it's time to make real decisions."

When you have snapped your jaw back into place, don't worry. There is no way that Donald Trump will get anywhere near the Republican nomination. RedState blogger Erick Erickson puts Trump's triumph into perspective:

There is a very simple reason for this: the field is 'meh.' Certainly partisans for the various candidates are excited about their various candidates. But the general consensus from conservatives is "none of the above." Donald Trump is filling the void right now.

The operative word here is "void," as an accurate description of the talents of the current Republican candidates. (Erickson's conclusion is that two non-runners – Mike Pence of Indiana and Chris Christie of New Jersey – should think again.)

But back to Trump. His proto-candidacy is a publicity stunt. Trump realises, like many before him, that if he's talked about as a candidate then he gets granted some sort of temporary gravitas by the US media. Last week CNN had Trump on in a discussion about US foreign policy in Libya. (No, really, they did. CNN.) The host of The Celebrity Apprentice doesn't get invited on CNN to talk about Libya, but putative presidential contender Donald Trump does.



Sadly, so far Trump has used his 15 seconds of political fame to talk pernicious nonsense about Obama's place of birth. The highlight was when Trump even denied that people put birth announcements in newspapers:

And here's what I ask people — who puts announcements? Two poor people, a man and a woman with no money, they have a baby. There's announcements in the newspaper? Nelson Rockefeller doesn't put announcements in. I've never seen one.

Two things here. One is that Trump is far out of touch that he thinks ordinary people don't put birth notices in newspapers (it's all Facebook pages these days, but still). The other is that Trump thinks Nelson Rockefeller is still a well-known rich person.

He's making Sarah Palin sound like Adlai Stevenson.

Maybe all this talk will go to his head, and Trump will actually run? He won't. If he does he could destroy his minor league celebrity status, and even tarnish the Republican brand in doing so.

As for the polls, it's still the phony war for the Republican nomination. Just as those early 2007 polls predicted with eerie accuracy that Rudy Giuliani would face Hillary Clinton in the 2008 election, a poll in 2011 is as useful as a Trump for President bumper sticker.