The Huffington Post reports that Whoopi Goldberg and Donald Trump went head-to-head on The View this morning over whether President Obama should “show his birth certificate.”
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Trump reiterated what's become his first pre-presidential campaign talking point, asking, "Why doesn't he show his birth certificate?" Whoopi fired back with, “Why should he have to?"
Trump said that he believes Obama has documentation of his birth, but "nobody from [Obama's] early years remembers him," and there must be "something on that birth certificate that he doesn't like."
"That's a terrible thing to say," Barbara Walters said, as Whoopi exclaimed, "Oh my God … that's the biggest pile of dog mess I've heard in ages." She continued, "It's not 'cause he's black, is it?"
Trump said it had "nothing to do with that."
It does have something to do with that, in combination with the rest of Obama's background, which make portraying him as a scary outsider who has something to hide extremely effective with the people Trump was really speaking to this morning.
So Whoopi wasted her energy getting so fired up. The Birther debate is old and should be well-settled. That Trump is fixated on recycling it is not really about the question of Obama's certificate or whether anyone remembers him from when he was growing up (as we've pointed out before, we think Trump is too smart to have not done the simple research on this and put his alleged concerns to rest).
Instead, his latching onto this issue is practically an official announcement that he's really serious about his rumored 2012 presidential run and that he won't hesitate to capitalize on people's fears and ignorance to get votes. It would have been more productive for Whoopi to call him out for that than to raise her own blood pressure debating him on the ridiculous merits.
Note to Trump: There's a bill pending in Hawaii that would give a certified copy of the certificate to anyone in exchange for $100. We're pretty sure that's in your budget.
Read more at the Huffington Post.
In other news: CBS News Poll: Half of Americans Approve of Obama's Handling of Libya.
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