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.

Property magnate and reality TV star Donald Trump on Thursday strung out a media tease over whether he will run for U.S. president by setting a -- tentative -- date for announcing a date for announcing his decision.

Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty may be running for president, but he's not ready to be official about it. Pawlenty moved quickly Tuesday to knock down a CNN story that appeared to show him officially entering the race.

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.

Tim Pawlenty, the former governor of Minnesota, is set to declare Monday afternoon that he is opening a presidential exploratory committee, a step that formalizes a campaign for the Republican nomination that he has been pondering for more than a year.

The Republican National Committee is considering sanctioning the GOP presidential primary debates and then selling the broadcast rights to news outlets, two Republicans with knowledge of the idea tell CNN.

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.

The early Republican favorite is wearing Gap skinny jeans and going tieless on network TV. But despite his makeover, he still has a hard time connecting with voters.Defying his reputation as a 1950s square, the new, more casual Mitt Romney is popping up around the country as he readies a second run for president.

Aides say the former speaker of the House will become the first major Republican candidate to enter the 2012 race.

Republican Mitt Romney accused President Barack Obama on Friday of presiding over "the greatest job loss in modern American history" in a speech to conservatives that strongly hinted at a run for president.