Trump Scores
The tornado of hair and noise that is Donald J. Trump has managed to do what no one else has done. Obama has released his birth certificate. It's here, if you want to inspect it yourself.
"I'm taking great credit and you have to ask the president, 'why didn't he do this a long time ago? Why didn't he do it a long time ago?' When Hillary Clinton was asking, when everybody was asking, why didn't he do it? It's shocking. It's shocking," Donald Trump said at a press conference this morning on President Obama's birth certificate.
“We do not have time for this kind of silliness,” he said to reporters after the White House released a long-form copy of his birth certificate. Potential Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump stirred up the controversy in recent weeks by demanding Obama prove he was born in Hawaii, not Kenya.
“We’ve got better stuff to do. I’ve got better stuff to do,” Obama said. “We’ve got big problems to solve, and I’m confident we can solve them, but we’re going to have to focus on them, not on this.”
Okay, okay, he wasn't on the golf course -- for once -- when he issued that statement. But it was an interesting move, to release it. As long as it was Trump and the Birthers, it marginalized the opposition to Obama, made them seem odd and paranoid.
Unless -- and I'm just speculating here -- polls started to indicate that the birth certificate issue was contributing to a general feeling that this president is dishonest about who he is, what he believes, and where he wants to take the country.
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Apr '11
Re: Trump Scores
Yep, Trump pwned the POTUS on this one. There was always something strange about the whole situation. It seems clear that Obama's team wanted to use the issue as political tool to cast adversaries as 'nut jobs'. Ah, "the most open and transparent administration in history". They just forgot to tell us there's a 3 year waiting period for requests.
Mar '11
Re: Trump Scores
Rob, I suspect your speculation is correct.
I'd rather Mr Trump not win the Republican nomination, but it will be fun to watch him move on, so to speak, to Mr Obama's College record, Authorship skills, and where he wants to take the country (if that wasn't already obvious).
Twill also be interesting to see Dr Corsi's book, in the light of this - it will either kill it's sales, or not, depending on what is in it. That book could be another reason for today's announcement, but that is just wild speculation.
Edited on Apr 27, 2011 at 12:21pmRe: Trump Scores
This was politics in its common form.
When hiding the certificate helped Obama in the polls he hid it. When Trump changed the polls, the President released it.
Trump succeeded where people using the court system could not. That's politics!
Trump looks like a tough guy with swagger - forcing the President's hand with words alone. Obama looks his usual metrosexual self.
Trump! Trump! Trump! Turmp! Make him show his college records, Donald!
Sep '10
Re: Trump Scores
This is a bad issue. Securing the release is a Pyrrhic victory, or at least a hollow one. This issue makes people look like wingnuts.
I'm especially surprised to see this coming from the Ricochet RINO wing. Honestly, Rob!
Jul '10
Re: Trump Scores
Let us also examine the Reaction of the Media vs. Trump once the Certificate was released.
Unlike a "Oh So Safe, Careful, Measured" Republican, who would have been all over himself apologizing for being mistaken, Trump followed Ann Coulters advice and went on offense. He didn't apologize for being wrong, he took credit for accomplishing what no one else was able to accomplish.
He Played to Win. The Republican field keeps Playing to Not Loose.
And by Playing to Not Loose, the Republican Establishment is creating a Vacuum that The Donald is filling. That's why he has traction. I disagree with The Donald on most issues, (therefore I am NOT a Donald Supporter) but I just wish ONE Republican would figure out that you need to Want to Win for a reason other than so you can hold a title in order to go out there and Beat Obama on his own turf (the MSM)
Trump will continue to capture the imagination of the electoriate as long as no republican figures out that it isn't 1995 anymore. It's a replay of 1980 if it's anything.
Re: Trump Scores
If I could draw, I'd do a political cartoon showing Trump with the President's arm twisted behind his back.
Say Uncle! Say Uncle!
Mar '11
Re: Trump Scores
Jaydee_007:
He Played to Win. The Republican field keeps Playing to Not Loose.
And by Playing to Not Loose, the Republican Establishment is creating a Vacuum that The Donald is filling.
Excellent point!
It's one reason why I am not a fan of Mitch Daniels (sorry, Ricochet's powers-that-be!) - he is not even sure if he wants to play, let alone to win.
There is one potential candidate who will certainly play to win, but she is rather, um, controversial and stupid - like Reagan in 1980.
Edited on Apr 27, 2011 at 12:19pmMay '10
Re: Trump Scores
As long as we have primaries, Trump has to be viewed as a net + for the GOP. There isn't a secret army of Republican GOP fans; most of his fans are independents and DEMOCRATS. So rock on, Donald!
Sep '10
Re: Trump Scores
I agree. I think the issue served Obama better when it remained at the pre-Trump level. Obama was joking about it back then and was using it to his advantage. But once got major media attention it served as an entree into all the other things Obama has kept under wraps; his grades, his transcripts from three Universities, his SAT scores and LSAT scores, who wrote Dreams of My Father, etc..
Any opponent could use the birth certificate question from the media to focus on the non-transparency of Obama's past and present regarding any number of unanswered questions without having to personally ascribe to the "birther" issue itself. This I think was another reason Obama's advisers relented on the issue as well as what Tommy De Seno said above..
This is like watching the final "boardroom" scene in The Aprentice where Trump zeroes in on some seemingly peripheral weakness and keeps turning up the heat.
Jun '10
Re: Trump Scores
Back when he was just not releasing the long-form COLB, not for anybody, he could say on principle, "it's private, and redundant." That looked better (for him) than," I decided to stop jerking everybody around, now that the birth certificate issue is gaining some traction with independents."
Dec '10
Re: Trump Scores
This completely explains why Obama lost big on this:
“We’ve got better stuff to do. I’ve got better stuff to do,” Obama said. “We’ve got big problems to solve, and I’m confident we can solve them, but we’re going to have to focus on them, not on this.”
Really, Mr. President? And for the past 2-1/4 years, you DIDN'T have better stuff to do? You were content through all of 2009 and 2010 to let this be a distraction -- to spend money and time on not doing what you just demonstrated you could have done at any time with a one-minute phone call. By letting it hang for over 2 years and THEN describing it as an unnecessary distraction, you've made your shallow focus on political point-scoring very clear to everyone.
Aug '10
Re: Trump Scores
So finally Obama bows... to a "reality TV" icon. It must galling for him. I'm delighted that Trump has pointed the way to defeating Obama, even though I pray he doesn't become president.
Americans have an inordinate love of money ("You can't be too thin or too rich"), and this cloaks people who have it with an aura of near invincibility. It's our Achilles' heel, I'm afraid. In many other nations you can be too rich, and personal qualities count more than money.
May '10
Re: Trump Scores
“We’ve got better stuff to do. I’ve got better stuff to do...”
As I pointed out on the Member Feed, that "better stuff" includes jetting off to be on Oprah, and then raising money for the DNC in NYC...not apparently focusing on the problems at hand...
Re: Trump Scores
Here's what I think--well, suspect, anyway--was beginning to dawn on them at the White House:
The narrow birth certificate issue was beginning to metastasize into a much larger, much more dangerous issue, namely, the perception that, in some basic way, Barack Hussein Obama simply isn't one of us.
Re: Trump Scores
Obama's political instincts are not that good. By giving way, he does not silence the clamor for knowledge about his past; he intensifies it. Trump understands this, and that is why he has upped the ante.
Obama should have released everything long ago. For a great variety of reasons, he is now on the run. Once you start, it is hard to stop.
Aug '10
Re: Trump Scores
Celebrity vulgarian bests milquetoast socialist president - oh boy!
To the extent that this empowers Trump or convinces him to run in the Republican primary it will cause Republicans a great deal of trouble and make it harder to beat Obama in 2012.
Trump is a liar and braggart who will cause damage in the primaries by making unfounded accusations and unfairly hammering the other candidates so that whoever emerges will be significantly damaged.
I don't want our nominee to play his crass media manipulation game. If there is not enough decency left in our country to reject an obvious cad like Trump than Heaven help us!
I personally believe this is all just a game for the Donald to pump up his brand and sell more products and that he won't run but you never know with an ego that size...
Jul '10
Re: Trump Scores
Peter Robinson: Here's what I think--well, suspect, anyway--was beginning to dawn on them at the White House:
The narrow birth certificate issue was beginning to metastasize into a much larger, much more dangerous issue, namely, the perception that, in some basic way, Barack Hussein Obama simply isn't one of us. · Apr 27 at 1:01pm
Bingo.
Now maybe he'll start using the word "Creator" when quoting the Declaration of Independence.
And stop riding girl bikes.
Re: Trump Scores
Kenneth
Peter Robinson: Here's what I think--well, suspect, anyway--was beginning to dawn on them at the White House:
The narrow birth certificate issue was beginning to metastasize into a much larger, much more dangerous issue, namely, the perception that, in some basic way, Barack Hussein Obama simply isn't one of us. · Apr 27 at 1:01pm
Bingo.
· Apr 27 at 1:12pm
Ah, Kenneth, you and me, once again. Two minds with but a single thought.
Some things remain reassuringly unchanging.
Jun '10
Re: Trump Scores
"We do not have time for this kind of silliness"....
How much time does it take to scan a single piece of paper, turn it into a .pdf and post it on the whitehouse.gov website....
5 minutes?....
Dec '10
Re: Trump Scores
To put it simply, Trump is Bad Cop.
Or, to use a Nixonian analogy, only Trump could call for the birth certificate.