Obama Trumped!

OBAMA TRUMPED!    It was entertaining to watch Donald Trump talk about the Obama Birth Certificate Issue this morning on FOX News. Trump's detractors, of which there are many in both political parties, are a feeble opposition. Despite our view that his foreign policy pronouncements may be a little "rough around the edges" he has an appeal for many ordinary citizens. He says what they want to hear. In our view, people are fed up with the dance that most politicians engage in when in office and during election campaigns. This morning's FOX NEWS presentation highlighted this and several aspects of Trump's current surge to the top of the polls.   Mr. Obama and his media advisors are so far from where the American people are that it is almost scary. Rushing out to offer a lame explanation about releasing his Birth Certificate and putting the squeeze on the networks in order to interrupt Trump's press conference so Obama could bump Trump off the tube must be seen by many as a move of desperation. If Trump's position has been so much nonsense, why the need to make an issue of it, especially in the way Obama did? It becomes obvious that the President and his staff were panic-stricken over a rapid rise in Donald Trump's popularity and felt they had to do something... NOW. Despite the talking head comment about a "White House strategy" the President and his advisors looked suspiciously un-Presidential and bungling to many.   First, Trump gets points with many people when he says he forced Obama to produce a long form birth certificate. It also seems to be common sense in stating that he will have it inspected for authenticity. "Trust but verify" was Reagan's view and there is no reason why a request like that should be deemed out of order. Those who would object, like Alan Colmes, obviously have another agenda. Trump says he hopes the Birth Certificate is genuine so that the issue can finally be put to rest and other, more important issues can be discussed. This seems to be reasonable.   For the President's part, he hurried to the White House pressroom in order to interrupt Trump's NH airport speech, undoubtedly in answer to panic stricken White House press advisors. That alone is an admission that the "Birth Certificate issue," whether a valid one or not, was not as trivial as many political insiders like to say. Many were interested in seeing the original, long form and when Obama refused to produce it, suspicions about qualifications for office surfaced. Many believe this was part of a strategy or he was trying to hide something. Who could blame people for questioning the circumstances? Trump should be given credit instead he is badmouthed. This may backfire on the bad mouthers. The public believes that most "insiders" represent special interests and have a reason for their views.    As an example, FOX had Alan Colmes and Karen Hanretty discussing the Trump New Hampshire announcements this morning. We expected to see Colmes in his usual Republican bashing role but to hear Republican Hanretty announce her agreement with Colmes' point of view made the program anything but "fair and balanced." In thinking over the content, we came to the conclusion that Hanretty was really representing the insider contenders in the Republican Party who seem to be confused about how to deal with the Trump phenomenon. In watching the show it became obvious that there was no way Hanretty was going to say anything positive about Trump. We came to the opinion that she was placed on the program by a Republican Party that wanted to get Mr. Trump off the national stage.   We doubt they will be able to accomplish that very easily. In fact, whether one agrees with Trump on some issues or not, the Republican Party should take care in how they handle Donald Trump. His appeal to ordinary Americans and his popularity may get so far ahead of the other contenders in the polls that the GOP will have no choice but to start taking him seriously. Those Republican "strategists" who are busy pandering to the wishes of the Washington insiders by taking every opportunity to bash Trump should be more aware of how people like the Tea Party folks view them. But, then again, they don't seem to be able to do that.