Birthers Get A Trump Card, Part 4

As I have said before, Donald Trump knows exactly what he is doing going full birther.

It's official: Donald Trump is a "birther." But he'd prefer you don't use that term.


Speaking to MSNBC Thursday, the business mogul and improbable presidential candidate reiterated much of what he has said in the last several days when it comes to doubting President Obama's birthplace, declaring, "I am embracing the issue, and I'm proud of the issue. I think somebody has to embrace it."

Trump, who in the last two weeks has raised the debunked issue on several programs, added he finds the term "birther" downright insulting.

"I don't like the name birther," he said. "I think it's very unfair and derogatory to a lot of good people that happen to think there is a possibility that this man was not born in this country."

Trump added he will continue to press the issue because, "If it were true, it'd be the greatest scam in the history of this country."

Look objectively at what Trump has done here.  He's as brilliant as he is dangerous.

He has gone on "liberal" MSNBC to defend the millions of Republicans (and some Independents and even a few Democrats) who believe that Barack Obama is hiding something on his birth certificate.  Before, the birther movement's greatest spokespeople were crackpot idiots like Orly Taitz and Alex Jones.  Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich have tried on their birther costumes, but they only did it halfway and they immediately jumped out after taking the heat.

But Trump knows how to play hardball.  Trump is selling birtherism as mainstream the way he hard-sells properties, and he knows rule #1 of the sale is never sell it halfway.  He knows what I've been saying for months now:  birtherism is mainstream Republican thinking.  And brother, he is selling that for everything it's worth.

In two weeks, Trump has gone from embarassment to nutjob to crazy like a fox to a serious threat.  And he's doing it by stomping as hard as he can on the birther message.

In fact, how long before we see other Republicans pick up the message that using the term "birther" is a filthy pejorative, insulting to all those hard working Real Americans out there who think the President is the greatest scam artist in American history, the way they freaked out over use of the term "Teabagger"?

Oh, and Trump is damn sure aware of the racial connotations to all this.  And he doesn't give a damn.  Trump has sold his soul for his shot at the big time, and that alone makes him the perfect GOP candidate.