[PassedOut]

Watching the news, I wonder about how many folks are not getting the joke. Trump is playing the news people for chumps, and they seem to be taking the bait hook, line and sinker.

Although I've never watched his show, I'm guessing that his season finale will include a blockbuster announcement that his "potential candidacy" was a gigantic put-on from the start.

The Right Word: Trump's birth certificate renaissance
Donald Trump For President, Says Joey Lawrence Of 'Blossom'

[hrothgar]

I'm not quite sure who the "Chump" is

The following URL takes you to a very interesting chart that shows TV viewing patterns versus party affiliation.

http://cdn.theatlant...final-49073.php

The viewership for "Celebrity Apprentice" clearly skews very democratic.
Moreover, ratings for Celebrity Apprentice have been plummeting over the past few weeks.

If "The Donald" is doing this as some kind of clever strategy to boost his TV ratings, I don't think that its working particularly well.

If anything, Trump looks like the "chump".

He's the one self destructing.
The TV networks are happily sititng back, selling ad time, and giving Trump all the rope that he wants.

[PassedOut]

Maybe he's trying to get more republicans to watch his show to reverse the drop in ratings. Who knows? But he's clearly been escalating the foolishness of his comments to see, in my opinion, how far he can push things and still be treated seriously by the news people.

[y66]

I have seen similar "crazy like a fox" stories about Qaddafi. Maybe they use the same PR firm.

James Fallows recently asserted that actual knowledge is irrelevant to tribal oriented thinking:

Quote

Yesterday [Tuesday], about half of all Republicans thought Obama was foreign born, and therefore an illegal occupant of the White House. How many Republicans will think the same thing one week from now? My guess is: about half. We've reached that stage on just about everything. It's probably been true of human beings throughout time, but is more obviously significant in politics now, that generally people don't act like scientific investigators, or judges in moot-court competitions, when parsing the logic and evidence behind competing arguments to come up with political views. They go on loyalty, and tradition, and hope, and fear, and self-interest, and generosity, and all the rest -- as the second half of my recent article on the new media discussed.

Here we have a wonderful real-world test: if "actual knowledge" mattered, the number of people who thought Obama was foreign-born would approach zero by next week -- with exceptions for illiterates, the mentally disabled, paranoid schizophrenics, etc. My guess is that the figures will barely change.

From Nate Silver's Monday 4/26 Poll Finds Most Americans Uncertain of Trump’s Birthplace post:

Quote

Clearly, some people do believe the lies and distortions about Mr. Obama’s birthplace; I’m just not sure that the fraction is as great as overly literal readings of these surveys might suggest. I’m also not sure that news organizations are necessarily doing all that much good by constantly debunking the rumors, which both legitimizes the topic as a point of discussion, and which may encourage some conservatives to say they have doubts about Mr. Obama’s birthplace in order to poke fun at the press. If you’re a mainstream conservative who is firmly convinced that Mr. Obama was born in Hawaii, you might nevertheless find it amusing when CNN credulously sends some of its top reporters to Honolulu to investigate the story.

I also wonder whether there isn’t an element of this in polls of Republican primary voters, which have shown Mr. Trump’s numbers on the rise. Some voters who don’t have any particular doubts about Mr. Obama’s birthplace might nevertheless appreciate that Mr. Trump is “in on the joke” by raising questions about it. The question that will determine whether Mr. Trump can remain a viable candidate is whether those voters are laughing with Mr. Trump or laughing at him.

Donald Trump a viable candidate? Can't believe he said that.

[Winstonm]

Quote

Italicized added:
if "actual knowledge" mattered, the number of people who thought Obama was foreign-born would approach zero by next week -- with exceptions for illiterates, the mentally disabled, paranoid schizophrenics, etc - in other words, tea party members and Rush Limbaugh fans

[barmar]

There are now dozens of blog posts and YouTube videos explaining that the birth certificate is a fake. There really isn't much you can do to quiet kooks and conspiracy theorists. And that's all the amunition that the rest of the Obamaphobes need.

It's not much different from the way religious fundamentalists deal with proofs of evolution. They can always find someone on their side who can come up with a plausible (to them) refutation, and they latch onto that.

Trump wasn't willing to go so far as to accuse Obama of faking the birth certificate, so he just found another windmill to tilt at -- how did Obama get into Harvard. How soon they forget -- Dubya got into Yale.

[PassedOut]

barmar, on 2011-April-30, 01:02, said:

Dubya got into Yale.

Affirmitive action is okay for rich white kids.

[blackshoe]

I don't think Obama has made a very good President, but I'm sure he's a natural born American, and I'm sure he's smart enough to have got into Harvard without any shenanigans. Mind you, I consider that he chose Harvard a downcheck on his judgement, but that may just be because I chose Cornell.

[PassedOut]

blackshoe, on 2011-April-30, 06:27, said:

I consider that he chose Harvard a downcheck on his judgment, but that may just be because I chose Cornell.

Princeton agrees.

Memo to Donald Trump: You're fired

Quote

I'd be dreading the next 18 months if I believed that The Donald is really planning a presidential run. His campaign charade has already lent a reality-show quality to the race. I'm betting — and hoping — it's nothing more than a long-running commercial for "Celebrity Apprentice."

Still, it's disturbing how easily Trump elevated the discredited ramblings of birther-mania to a challenge the president felt compelled to meet.

That's a testament to Trump's showmanship and shamelessness. And a reflection of our gullibility.

An honest admission by the LA Times.

[blackshoe]

From the article PassedOut linked:

Quote

The controversy over Obama's birthplace was spawned and fueled by a handful of right-wing nuts

Wrong. It was spawned by Hilary Clinton's 2008 Presidential campaign. The "fueled by" is accurate, though.

[Winstonm]

Quote

There are now dozens of blog posts and YouTube videos explaining that the birth certificate is a fake.

Correlation?

Quote

PRINCETON, NJ -- Four in 10 Americans believe God created humans in their present form about 10,000 years ago

.

The 40% paradox: if there really were a second coming, it would mean an end to Nascar.

[kenberg]

As a Democrat I am trying to decide whether I find it more frightening that it is mostly Democrats who watch Celebrity Apprentice or that anyone does. As noted on another thread I am working on whether I can handle watching the brutality of Game of Thrones. I have never had the least bit of problem deciding about watching Donald Trump.

[luke warm]

blackshoe, on 2011-April-30, 07:17, said:

From the article PassedOut linked:


Wrong. It was spawned by Hilary Clinton's 2008 Presidential campaign. The "fueled by" is accurate, though.

right, hillary and bill

[cherdano]

blackshoe, on 2011-April-30, 07:17, said:

Wrong. It was spawned by Hilary Clinton's 2008 Presidential campaign.

Do you have a reference supporting this claim?

[hrothgar]

cherdano, on 2011-May-01, 08:26, said:

>>Wrong. It was spawned by Hilary Clinton's 2008 Presidential campaign.

Do you have a reference supporting this claim?

My understanding is that the birther movement dates back to the Democratic primary.

The "PUMA" idiots made all sorts of ridiculous claims at this point in time.
The Obama campaign initially posted his certificate of live birth in response to these accusations.

I have seen no credible evidence linking this to Hillary Clinton, nor any official member of her campaign.
Many people believe that "PUMA" was a false flag operation.

FWIW... FactCheck.org attributes this to Hillary Clinton supporters and not the Clinton campaign

http://www.factcheck...orn-in-the-usa/

[Winstonm]

So, Donald Trump is channeling Pat Paulsen, and "The Apprentice" is channeling "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour"?

[kenberg]

Not for the first time, I find myself enjoying a column by Kathleen Parker.
http://www.washingto...wyGF_story.html

After a brief look at the views of birthers and ant-birthers, she comments

Quote

To whichever group one claims membership, one can’t help wondering when exactly we lost our minds.

If I wanted to construct a conspiracy theory it would be that Donald Trump is a Democratic provocateur on a mission to convince voters that the Republican Party has been taken over by loonies.

[barmar]

I've been ashamed of both parties for years. Republicans are nuts, while Democrats are ineffectual, even when they're in power.

[onoway]

http://nymag.com/dai...dorse_dona.html

[Winstonm]

Ivana new first lady.