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Ok I know this one’s going to get me in trouble but I’m going to cover it anyway.
This week Donald Trump came out on The View and said something that has come to be considered completely unacceptable: He had the audacity to suggest that Barak Obama should be required to release his official birth certificate.
The response was the predictable cackle of indignation. In the midst of a 14-minute interview laden with interruptions Trump was harangued. Barbara Walters and Whoopee Goldberg stumbled over themselves shouting, “Why should he have to defend himself against [this] accusation?” “Why should he have to” show his birth certificate?” And then Goldberg played the race card: “ I’ve never heard of any white president every having to show their birth certificate…”
Now before any of you say it let me just get this out of the way – Stop it. Stop before you go down the fallacious path of name-calling. Stop before you throw down the ad hominem “birther” card. Stop before you imply that you thought I was “smarter than this.” Stop before you start saying that you knew I was closet gun totin-bible thumpin conspiracy theorist all along. Just stop it. Stop and think. Think about what you are saying.
Are you really ready to say that our culture has come to the point where a person like Trump can’t say a candidate for the presidency should provide proof of eligibility without his intelligence being impugned?
I’m no Trump fan and I frankly wouldn’t vote for him but Lord help us if we can’t admit that, in at least this case, he is asking a good question for the right reasons and that he has the right to do so without being accused of either being stupid or racist.