2016 Sept 16^th

Very shortly ago Donald J. Trump made news yet again; Trump, at long last has stated that he believes President Obama was born in the United States. That’s all he was willing to say on the subject, no, “I was previously mistaken,” or, “Gee, I guess I’ve been wrong all these years.” His announcement was immediately followed by a tour of Trump facilities for the assembled press, no questions please.

MSNBC and CNN eagerly showed the outraged Congressional Black Caucus members responding to Trump’s revelation. Their outrage was because they felt Trump had long attempted to delegitimize the first black president and that he should now apologize for having done so. Fox News, on the other hand, felt the big news of the moment was about the murder of JonBenet Ramsey in Boulder CO., some 20 years ago. Hey, no negative remarks about Donald Trump will be broadcast by Fox News. The Breitbart boys had a laundry list of misinformation attempting to paint Hillary Clinton as the original “birther.” The early Clinton campaign thought about ways to delegitimize Obama because of his “foreign entanglements” as a child, but birtherism and the relentless pursuit of that notion is all Donald Trump’s doing, and he owns it.

The last week or so has not been a happy time for Secretary Clinton’s campaign. Trump is catching up with her in the polls and she is neck and neck with Trump on the “untrustworthy” dimension. To be seen as untrustworthy as Donald Trump is a tribute to the Trump campaign’s propaganda machine. Trump unfailingly refers to Clinton as “Crooked Hillary.” Trump’s TV station, Fox News, never lets up on the missing emails, now available courtesy of the Russian Intelligence Service. These constant drumbeats, coupled with Clinton’s personal preference for privacy and some unwise handling of issues from failing to be forthcoming about her pneumonia to bringing General Powell into her email problems were just not smart. She surely has enough very bright advisors who can steer her away from these problems if she has the temperament to listen to them.

There are some who believe that the Trump campaign is preparing the public for the Donald’s refusal to debate. We now have Trump asserting that CNNs Anderson Cooper, who is to moderate one of the debates, is biased. Trump typically refers to CNN as the “Clinton News Network.” Trump’s concern about his perception of Cooper’s bias isn’t enough to drive him from the debate…yet, but just wait. Trump has also claimed that he would much prefer to have no moderators at all. Of course he would. With no moderators, Trump could completely dominate the airtime. He could pick his own topics and bluster as much as he liked. The “no moderator” bit won’t fly, but Trump is preparing the ground for his withdrawal. Such a debate with a moderator would be “very unfair” to him.