The whole birtherism thing never made sense. Even if Obama were born in Kenya (and he was born in Hawaii) he would still be a natural citizen because his mother was a citizen. John McCain was born in Panama.
But
Donald John Trump knew what he was doing in 2011, when he resurrected
birtherism. He was poking Obama to see how he would react.
Obama lost his cool.
At the annual White House Correspondents Association dinner, Obama ripped into Donald Trump.
From his seat at the Washington Post table, Donald Trump observed and smiled. Obama had taken the bait.
I
don't know if President Trump knew this at the time, but 20 years
earlier, Obama as a law student had ripped into him. In a paper, Obama
wrote, "[Americans have] a continuing normative commitment to the ideals
of individual freedom and mobility, values that extend far beyond the
issue of race in the American mind. The depth of this commitment may be
summarily dismissed as the unfounded optimism of the average American — I
may not be Donald Trump now, but just you wait; if I don't make it, my
children will."
Unfounded optimism.
Having sized Obama up, Donald Trump took a pass on running in 2012.
But in 2016, Obama tried to trip Donald Trump up. Obama went on a late night show to burn Donald Trump.
Obama
read a tweet from Donald Trump, which said, "President Obama will go
down as perhaps the worst president in the history of the United
States!"
Obama then said, "At least I'll go down as a president" and dropped his cellphone.
That
line aged like milk. A few months later, Obama had to sit and watch
Donald John Trump take the oath of office as the 45th president.
Obama handled President Trump's election about as well as a 5-year-old losing a board game.
And
now, as Julie Kelly said, Obama's star is fading fast as he tries
desperately to prop up his worthless vice president's campaign.
Kelly wrote,
"The cool Chicagoan famously given the moniker No Drama Obama has
appeared angry even slightly unhinged during his recent Biden campaign
events — much like an aging rock star who goes from selling out
100,000-seat amphitheaters around the world to headlining suburban rib
fests, Obama doesn’t exactly command the crowd he used to back in his
heyday. He used a bullhorn to address a sparse crowd of Biden volunteers
in Philadelphia on October 21; turnout wasn’t much better at speeches
in Orlando and Miami. Meanwhile, his successor attracts tens of
thousands of supporters across the country."
Obama is talking to cars now.
Parked cars.
He cannot advertise his appearances ahead of time for fear that Trump supporters will show up and drown him out.
Kelly's
column ended, "Barack Obama knows that if Joe Biden is defeated, the
loss will represent another repudiation of the Obama-Biden reign.
Obama’s presence on the campaign trail isn’t really about helping his
bestie win the White House, it’s about saving face. And if Donald Trump
wins, no other political figure will have done more political damage to
the man most presidential historians consider the most gifted politician
of modern times.
"That’s not exactly the legacy Barack Obama has in mind."
The comedown began in April 2011 when a president let a playboy billionaire get under his skin.
And stay.
