In news from America, Donald Trump has “accomplished something that nobody else has been able to accomplish” – the final clinching proof that the sitting US President was, in fact, born exactly where he said he was. What a marvellous achievement. Clearly, in deference to such awesome influence, said sitting US President, having just been vindicated, should be thrown out and replaced with the man apparently dedicated to publicly obsessing over the non-issue.
I can’t be the only one who perceives that, by releasing his birth certificate now, Obama is trying to wedge the US Republicans.
The timing was crucial, you see. The “birther” conspiracy theorists have had years to consolidate their ironclad counter-reality belief that Obama was born in Foreignstan. They are not going to be convinced by anything so trifling and mundane as a complete, unambiguous, authoritative, factual refutation of their case. They have invested too much time and effort. Their reaction can only be to push further into denialism and suggest ever-wider and more elaborate conspiracies.
The longer this story lives, the less news converage there will be of “serious” Republican presidential candidates, and presumably therefore the less interested everyone will be in voting Republican. This cannot be lost on Obama.
This isn’t the way it should be, of course (in case you thought I was gloating). I’m not heavily invested in US politics, but democracy is not served by having denialism steal the limelight, even when it is self-destructive. It’s hard to blame Obama for the lack of a credible opponent, of course, but a credible opponent there should always be.