Hair Ye, Hair Ye.
Did President Obama just get Trumped by The Donald? This morning, the White House responded to the questions raised about the President's Birth Certificate in a way they had never before done. And if you're Donald Trump, the timing couldn't possibly have been better. This has led some sources to speculate the President Obama is perhaps trying to give Donald Trump a little boost, based on his high negatives amongst independents. I, for one, don't doubt that a bit. However, I believe that this strategy is doomed to backfire on the President. To understand why, we first need to take a look back at how President Obama has addressed this issue in the past.
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Well, it appears that he no longer trusts in the American People's capacity to get beyond nonsense. He took his money off of us, and spent it on a copy of his birth certificate. Yet in so doing, he once again was dismissive about the matter, referring to it today as "silliness". So which one is it? Is it a silly matter that the American people can see right through, or is it a serious matter that requires the attention of the President of the United States. Today, like it or not, President Obama made it the latter. And Donald Trump was quick to declare victory. So quick, in fact, that the networks had to break into Trump's reaction to cover the President's statement of the "cause".
"I'm very proud of myself because I've accomplished something that nobody else has been able to accomplish," he said in press conference in New Hampshire. "I'm really honored."
In one fell swoop, Donald Trump went from the guy we're not supposed to take seriously to the guy who had forced President Obama's hand. Yet if this were to endear Trump to the right and the Tea Party and land him the Presidential nomination, would this truly be a win for Obama based on his high negatives with Independents? Potentially it could, but that would depend on something polls don't tell us.
Consider this. Independents by definition avoid party affiliation. This is typically because they hate the political games played by members of both parties. Until now, the "birther" cause was looked at as an extreme right wing fringe group of the Republican Party. Thus, when Trump came out on this issue, is it not possible that it was viewed as political pandering and became an instant turn off to many Independents? It is not only possible, it is likely. Now that President Obama has turned over the Birth Certificate, that changes the equation quite a bit. Until now, he has insisted that the proof he had presented previously in the form of his Certification Of Live Birth was enough. He spent millions of dollars paying lawyers to fight off attempts to force him to produce this very document. Finally, he coughed up the $15 bucks and produced the real thing pictured below.
In so doing, he made Donald Trump look like a leader. President Obama is a man who openly professed that he needed his majority in the House and 60 votes in the Senate to get anything done. Yet all Trump needed was a microphone and a bad hairdo to get the President to do what many had been asking him to do for some time.
President Obama already showed with the stimulus package that he is not very good at picking political winners and losers. I believe that he showed today that he is equally inept at picking political winners and losers. By releasing the Certificate today, he has validated the issue, and he has validated Donald Trump. By validating both at the same time, I believe this may cause some independents to re-think Trump. After all, in this battle Trump has shown himself to be exactly what we are looking for in our next President.
- Donald Trump showed the courage to take on a tough issue that was it's own "third rail", and showed the ability to win. That is a refreshing change from a President that kicks out a budget with no cuts to try to force the Republicans hand at making the first move.
- Donald Trump showed the political clout to bring the game to his table. The rest of the Republican field is fighting to get mentioned on third rate political blogs.
- President Obama once again finds himself following the lead of others. This automatically makes the guy in the lead look like a leader. Today, Donald Trump is the beneficiary of this and he looked like a leader.
The critics will try to pick Trump apart on this one, and I say let them. It's not like being the favorite of the political insiders is the best position to be in right now. But they will do this because they must to try to push the establishment favorites along. I've heard many of them mention that Trump is no worry because Giuliani was the Republican lock in the polls this time last cycle. I don't even think they realize that they are making my point for me. Better hurry up and look now, because at the moment, Romney is the Republican "lock", not Trump. That could be changing shortly.
