Donald Trump and Sarah Palin are GOP 2012's biggest names (Joshua Roberts/Reuters)
Byron Tau points out yet another example revealing the weakness of the GOP's 2012 field: even though Tim Pawlenty has methodically planned his presidential campaign for more than a year and just formally announced his exploratory committee, Donald Trump has still managed to get more coverage from television networks over the past month.
According to Nexis search of CNN, ABC, NBC, Fox, and CBS transcripts, Pawlenty has gotten mentioned on 72 broadcasts while Trump has made into 79. So when Republicans fret about their prospects for defeating President Obama, they've got something to worry about. Their two biggest names are reality TV shows stars who probably won't end up joining the race. Meanwhile, real candidates like Pawlenty manage to inspire little more than yawns.