Donald Trump appears to be connecting with Republican primary voters. A new WSJ/NBC poll of Republican voters have the Queens, NY native at 17% nationally tied with Mike Huckabee and behind Mitt Romney at 21%.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney appears to be the early front-runner in the largely unformed race for the Republican nomination for president, but real estate magnate Donald Trump may be a surprise contender, according to a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll.

Among Republican primary voters, Mr. Romney captured the support of 21% in a broad, nine-candidate field. Mr. Trump was tied for second with former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, with 17%. House Speaker Newt Gingrich got 11%, just ahead of former Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin’s 10%. Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, considered a strong contender by political handicappers, remains largely unknown, with just 6% support. Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota had 5%, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum 3%, and Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour with just 1%.

This shows dissatisfaction with the current field. Trump is discussing issues that many mainstream Republicans are ignoring. If he runs, he is not to be dismissed easily. Clearly Trump is connecting with rank and file Republicans. The other potential candidates Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, Mitch Daniels, Tim Pawlenty and Newt Gingrich who speak in 20 year old talking points.

Donald Trump discusses issues that people are concerned about. China’s manipulation, The stranglehold of OPEC, the leaching of our Military by so called allies and interventions not based on National interests. Trump is speaking to the concerns of the people. Like him or not, his message is resonating.

Update: Here is a great article by American Thinker on why Trump in 2012 is exactly what the GOP needs.

Untill, our world, the real world, is far from perfect.  Given current political realities, Trump may be just what Republican voters need at the moment.

As Trump himself has noted, if not for pervasive voter disenchantment with President George W. Bush, we wouldn’t now have President Barack. H. Obama.  In 2008, voters in both major parties and everywhere in between had grown weary of Bush’s “compassionate conservatism.”  Of course, being but a euphemism for ever larger government — that is, exactly that thing against which Republican campaign rhetoric rails — it was neither compassionate nor conservative, as conservatives understand these concepts.  The Republican Party claimed to have learned this lesson, but beyond vague references to “spending,” no GOP 2012 hopeful has so much as explicitly repudiated Bush “conservatism,” much less specified the respects in which their governance will differ from that of the last Republican president.

Trump, in glaring contrast, has already indicated the willingness, the eagerness even, to make it abundantly clear to both the party and the nation how and why he will be no Bush Republican.   This the party faithful and — more importantly, to hear the Republicans tell it — the independents and “moderates” regarding whom the politicians from both parties spare no occasion to woo both need and deserve to know.

Trump represents a clean break with the the last 20 years of the Rockefeller Compassionate Conservatism. The GOP will once again be the party it was in the era of Reagan, it will mean business on both economics and national interests.