Trump Still Hot Among Republican Candidates

The most surprising candidate among all of the Republican hopefuls has been "birther" billionaire Donald Trump. Once considered a joke candidate by most people, Trump has rocketed to the top of the candidate field. And he's done it without discussing any real issues. He's just incessantly beat the drum about the tired old canard about President Obama not being born in the United States. Evidently this ridiculous notion still resonates among many Republicans.

Now a new poll shows just what several others have recently shown -- that Trump is in the lead among Republicans (although tied with Huckabee for that lead in this poll). It's still a long way until the nomination, but Trump has already shown that the other candidates are going to have to take him seriously. But no candidate has yet gotten the kind of numbers that would make him/her a prohibitive favorite and the race is still wide open.

What's even more surprising, at least for me, has been the fall in the polls of two other candidates -- Mitt Romney and Sarah Palin, who were once thought to be the leading candidates. There is still time for one or both of them to make a comeback, but if they don't show something soon they may start finding it hard to raise enough money to compete (since few people want to waste money on a candidate that can't win).

Here is the newest Gallup Poll (conducted April 15th through April 20th of 1,047 Republicans or Republican-leaning Independents):

Donald Trump...............16%
Mike Huckabee...............16%
Mitt Romney...............13%
Sarah Palin...............10%
Ron Paul...............6%
Newt Gingrich...............6%
Michele Bachmann...............4%
Mitch Daniels...............3%
Tim Pawlenty...............3%
Rick Santorum...............2%
Haley Barbour...............2%
John Huntsman...............1%
Gary Johnson...............*
Chris Christie...............*
Herman Cain...............*
Other...............1%
None/No Opinion...............14%