Trump Gets An Election 2012 Bump From Successful Birth Certificate Campaign, FoxNews Appearances

An aggressive campaign to bully President Obama into showing his birth certificate, face time on FoxNews, and audacious foreign policy ideas have catapulted Donald Trump in the polls as he contemplates an election 2012 run.

Love him or hate him, The Donald is moving up in the polls.

While mainstream pollsters and pundits amuse themselves with debating if Mitt Romney or Mike Huckabee is the current front-runner of the GOP election 2012 race, Donald Trump has clearly inserted himself into the fray. Circumventing the GOP establishment, Trump has been quick out of the gate, leveraging his own personal wealth and resources — as well as the widespread coverage that FoxNews has recently given him — to bring his opening salvo of political challenges aimed at President Obama to a populist audience.

His opening barrage — a reopening and mainstreaming of the Obama birth certificate issue — has received unprecedented traction with GOP and Independent voters, essentially bringing the issue from the fringes of conservatism to the populist center. Even fresh-faced, Tea Party-inspired Republican prodigies like Marco Rubio are blushing at Trump’s audacious tenacity on challenging Obama to produce his birth certificate, as Trump is now sending a “team” to Hawaii to see if they can dig it up themselves.

Again — love him or hate him, Trump has been the only politician to successfully play the birther issue to his advantage.

No matter how many stalwart Republicans like Bill O’Reilly or Marco Rubio balk at Trump’s early approach to election 2012, it seems to be resonating with “the folks” (as O’Reilly himself might say): a recent PPP poll that targeted New Hampshire voters — an early bellwether for election 2012 hopefuls — shockingly revealed Trump as a close second finisher, just behind shew-in New Englander Mitt Romney. The poll gave Trump 21% of the vote to Romney’s 27% poll victory.

For as much as Democrats continue to deride the birther movement, Trump’s rebranding of the issue has gained traction even in the more stoic cynicism of the left-leaning Northeast. In a recent article, The Daily Caller commented that:

“The ‘birther’ movement seems to have taken hold in New Hampshire. A plurality – 42 percent – say that they do not think that President Obama was born in the United States, and 23 percent say they are unsure. 35 percent say that they think that Obama was born in the US. Those who are unsure are at the very least susceptible to the birther argument, which would make that seem like a very compelling line for a candidate that hopes to compete in the state.”

Given Donald Trump’s prowess when it comes to succeeding in new ventures, he has clearly moved out in front of his birther-shy counterparts in the election 2012 race by capitalizing on a PR formula that is working for him — and against President Obama, who seems unable or unwilling to effectively rebuff Trump’s recent challenges.

Trump and the FoxNews “Factor” In election 2012

It should also be noted that the PPP poll was taken not long after Trump’s recent stint on FoxNews’ “OReilly Factor,” where he and Bill O’Reilly parsed a wide range of domestic and foreign policy issues, all of which was meant to broadcast Trump’s out-of-the-box ideas on how he would govern as President. Just as Rubio recently bristled at Trump’s birther campaign, so too did the often hyperbolic Glenn Beck balk at Trump’s hard-line approach to handling both the Chinese and Arab power bases in the world today.

It isn’t easy to make someone like Glenn Beck — a conservative folk hero who’s mantras are typically capped by urging his audience to stand up and fight – seem reluctant to take action against foreign forces that are clearly weakening the economic and political power of the United States.

But for as much as Glenn Beck and Bill O’Reilly sought to characterize some of Trump’s foreign policy positions as uninformed and unrealistic, his ideas have clearly resonated with FoxNews viewers, contributing to Trump’s first election 2012 “bump” in the polls.

It remains to be seen if this recent surge for Trump’s election 2012 chances is little more than a momentary pulse at the onset of the election cycle, when few candidates have begun to stake out claims on policy and political positioning. It very well may be that Donald Trump will be a distant memory in the election 2012 cycle this time next year — he may not even be in the running by then.

But one thing is clear: for as much as The Donald has yet to convince politicians and pundits that he is a serious candidate for election 2012, voters are clearly ready to give him a chance.