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DONALD TRUMP. Really?

The federal government is running out of money. The country’s armed forces are involved in three wars. And who is getting the most ink as a potential Republican presidential candidate? The Donald. Seriously?

“I have never been so serious as I am now,” Trump says.

“I have great respect for Donald Trump, but that’s the last thing the country needs is a showboat,” said Glenn Beck. Guess it takes one to know one. Beck appeared to be a potential candidate himself after holding that giant rally in Washington last year. But last week he was fired by Fox News for losing advertisers as well as audience share.

Meanwhile, Fox News has signed up Trump to do a “Monday Mornings with Trump” segment on the show Fox & Friends. But Trump for president?

The thought cannot be dismissed. Not when the latest NBC/Wall Street Journal poll of expected Republican primary voters shows Trump tied for second place with former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee. But here’s the kicker: Trump leads the other contenders among Republicans who identify themselves as tea-party followers.

You can’t help but draw a line from Trump’s appeal to tea-party folks to his remarks questioning Obama’s being born in the United States. It’s Trump’s attacks on Obama’s citizenship that signal the type of campaign he would run. It wouldn’t be about finding the truth; it would be about further dividing America.

Here’s hoping those polls showing that’s the direction in which Republican voters are leaning are wrong.