This past week, my friend smuggled a bag of pretzels into Bass under the guise that it was “Jesus food” and would somehow stop her statistics homework from eating her soul. However, it’s probably more similar to crack than divine nourishment. Every time she brings the pretzels into the room, we proceed to devour them until all sixteen servings disappear. We both know it’s a bad idea for her to buy these pretzels, yet she does it anyway. They’re not even that good.

Donald Trump is providing his own serving of “Jesus food” to the political universe with his recent flirtation with candidacy for the 2012 presidential election. This has been validated by a recent poll by CNN/Opinion Research, which showed him tied for first in popularity with Mike Huckabee, each garnering 19 percent of the vote in the poll. But we all know Trump is unlikely to run for President. We’ve been through this before. Before both the 1988 and 2000 presidential elections, Trump teased the public with talk of running, and both times opted to stay in the private sector. Somehow, the media is still infatuated with the idea that Trump might run. Maybe this time will be different. The field of potential GOP contenders is so fallow as to be fertile for the Trump speculation.

The political elite have not been shy to broadcast their concerns about the other potential candidates. One supported a health care mandate, one hasn’t gained traction outside of the southern evangelical community, one has some of the highest unfavorable ratings of any U.S. politician, and many of them are failed 2008 candidates. From a mass media perspective, the field is relatively bland; the names simply don’t sell. Looking to inject new interest into their broadcasts and newspaper articles, the media is reaching for the Trump card, and Trump has been more than willing to help them out.

Certain factors are presented to the mainstream media consumers that lend some legitimacy to the news story: Trump is a multi-billionaire and would be willing to sink over 600 million dollars into a presidential campaign and would even consider an independent candidacy if he was unsuccessful in the Republican primary. In February, he clarified his positions on the top issues, announcing that he is pro-life, pro-gun rights, and anti-Obamacare, all of which are favorable positions among the Republican base. As a result of his popular reality show, his brand and his wealth, his name is highly recognizable among voters. His business acumen, coupled with his quasi-rags-to-riches story, could play well in a campaign. One school of thought is that Trump has the credibility to be a serious contender. It would be hard for the media to disregard this potential.

Despite the relatively rational basis in favor of a Trump candidacy, there are overriding factors that virtually eliminate the feasibility of a viable campaign and lend support to the notion that the Donald doesn’t want anything more than attention. In addition to his conservative positioning, Trump has been rallying the extremes of the Republican base. He is quickly emerging as a leader among the tea partiers, birthers, and social conservatives. He is pro-American and anti-China, taking a strong protectionist position and wanting to put high tariffs on Chinese goods. Even disenchanted neo-cons can support the Trump ticket: he favors taking a strong stand against OPEC and believes we haven’t exploited Iraq’s oilfields to our advantage. Cutting all foreign aid is also something Trump would support. Most recently, he made headlines by demanding validation of the President’s citizenship and hiring investigators to go to Hawaii in order to collect proof that he was born in the U.S. These positions are not positions that an electable presidential candidate would promote. They’re outrageous.

If the Trump story is any example, Americans have an unhealthy addiction to infotainment. It is disappointing that reasonable discussion of presidential contenders is usurped because a reality television personality says he wants to be President. Serious news coverage is being commandeered as a result of the Trump drama (although thankfully the recent report about Israeli Prime Minster Netanyahu cancelling his meeting with Justin Bieber got through). Moreover, in case his true motive wasn’t clear enough to the public, Trump recently signed on with Fox to host a segment each Monday morning. It is almost as if he is mocking the public’s inability to refocus. Even though we all know that Trump is not running for president, that it would probably be horrid if he ran for President, and that he clearly has a conflict of interests (i.e. his brand benefits from the coverage), we obsess over it anyways. If this is the environment in which we select the leader of the free world, we should have major concerns. Modern America is a disciple of the new era of “infotainment” and the 24-hour news cycle, but maybe we need to reform the way we do business. We need to give up the “Jesus food” and see the light: Elections have more on the line than who makes it to next week’s episode of Celebrity Apprentice.