Donald Trump and the Crackpot Candidate

He has been trying to soften his image, and portray himself as a reasonable man. A man who loves children and black people, not a deranged demagogue.

And it has boosted his polls.

But sadly for Donald Trump, he can only be reasonable for so long, before the voices in his head start screaming, and he reveals his inner racism.

And now, just as he was doing so well, he may have stuck a fork in his own campaign.



By refusing to acknowledge reality once again, and admit he was wrong when he claimed that Barack Obama, the first black President, wasn't born in the United States.

The resurfacing of Mr. Trump’s doubts about Mr. Obama’s birthplace — in an interview with The Washington Post that was published on Thursday — comes less than two months before the general election and as he has been working more aggressively to court minority voters.

To make matters worse, if that's possible, it also seems that him and his handlers aren't singing from the same songbook.

In his interview with The Post, Mr. Trump made it clear that his campaign staff does not always speak for him. He was asked specifically about comments by his campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, who has acknowledged that Mr. Obama was born in Hawaii and has said that Mr. Trump privately agrees. “It’s O.K.,” he said of Ms. Conway on Thursday. “She’s allowed to speak what she thinks. I want to focus on jobs. I want to focus on other things.”

Which could be bad news for his THIRD campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway...



But worse news for Trump. 

Because he's trapped. He  can't be seen to back down from the issue that launched his political career. His bigot followers would never forgive him.

And sadly for them, Barack Obama is more popular today than he was the day he was re-elected...



So he will be able to use the birther issue against Trump to deadly effect.

And so will Hillary Clinton.


Who will also be able to use it to show that when she called Trump and his supporters a "basket of deplorables" she wasn't kidding...



While others like Nicholas Kristof point out, that's what happens when a crackpot runs for President.

There are crackpots who believe that the earth is flat, and they don’t deserve to be quoted without explaining that this is an, er, outlying view, and the same goes for a crackpot who has argued that climate change is a Chinese-made hoax, who has called for barring Muslims and who has said that he will build a border wall and that Mexico will pay for it. 

We owe it to our readers to signal when we’re writing about a crackpot. Even if he’s a presidential candidate. No, especially when he’s a presidential candidate.

And suggests the time has come for the media to stop covering Trump as if he was a normal candidate, instead of a Con man, a serial liar, and a dangerous demagogue...



We should be guard dogs, not lap dogs, and when the public sees Trump as more honest than Clinton, something has gone wrong. 

For my part, I’ve never met a national politician as ill informed, as deceptive, as evasive and as vacuous as Trump. He’s not normal. And somehow that is what our barks need to convey.

So the birther issue may finally give the media the license to call a crackpot a crackpot. 

And of course I can't wait for Elizabeth Warren, the Angry Orange's nemesis, to hit the campaign trail and shrink Trump down to size...



For it does need to be said: a man who believes the President of the United States is an African. A man who believes that climate change is a hoax. A man who believes he knows more about ISIS than the generals.

And is also a bigot, a misogynist, and a paranoid narcissist, is not just a small man. 

He is indeed a deranged and dangerous demagogue, he is unfit to be the President of the United States.

And he absolutely must be defeated, before he destroys us all...