The race is about to get underway as we are starting to hear some names get thrown out there for potential presidential contenders. One of the names that I have been hearing a lot is Donald Trump. I remember the first time I heard his name as a possibility, I laughed.

Not that there is anything necessarily wrong with him. All I really know about him is that he’s rich, he has done a lot of good things, his hair is real and I enjoy watching him on “Celebrity Apprentice.” But it was almost like a joke that the likes of Donald Trump would even be considering running for president.

But then I thought about others in politics that we have probably been just as surprised by, such as Arnold Schwarzenegger and Al Franken. Who would have thought, right?

Now last week Donald Trump made an appearance on “The View” and the fireworks were almost as explosive as Bill O’Reilly’s last appearance on the show. He said that he wants President Obama to show his birth certificate. Most of the ladies on “The View” got quite upset and couldn’t understand why he was asking this. His answer was, “There’s something on that birth certificate that he doesn’t like.”

Of course the race card got thrown out there and I honestly don’t believe that has anything to do with Donald Trump’s concerns. I think he, like many others, has some genuine doubts about Obama’s citizenship. Now I personally don’t really think he isn’t an American citizen, but there are some who do and well, I guess Mr. Trump is one of them.

Now here is the thing with Donald Trump…he is a pretty headstrong guy. He believes what he believes and he doesn’t really care what others think. What I like about this is you are more likely to get a genuine person, not someone who is going to play to the crowd or even to the party. He sees what is happening to this country and he has no problem expressing this. Does he have solutions? Well that remains to be seen.

Another interesting possible Republican presidential contender is Michele Bachman. She might even be the next Sarah Palin, as we are hearing more and more about her. Now so far all she has said is that her biggest interest for 2012 is making sure that President Obama is a one-term president. She is still on the fence about whether or not she will run. If she does, I hope she is prepared to get battered like Sarah Palin did as the V.P. contender. Once again though, does she have solutions? Does she have a plan? I really don’t know.

Then of course we have the aforementioned Sarah Palin. I will be very surprised if she doesn’t run. But she doesn’t really have any party backing her. She is not popular with the independents, hasn’t been embraced by the Republicans and may not be “Tea Party” material.

All I know is that with any of these three, the race is sure to be an interesting one. But if we have all three names in the hat? Well then I think the next presidential election could prove to be the most controversial and exciting one we have ever seen in history.