Greg Sargent writes the epitaph for Donald Trump’s aborted presidential campaign:
Even putting aside the killing of Bin Laden, a high visibility huckster/reality TV star like Trump was the perfect agent to reveal the cheap fraudulence and vacuousness of birtherism and its underlying assumptions. But beyond that, you couldn’t have asked for a more striking and revelatory contrast than the sight of the media freak-show surrounding Trump’s bluster and Obama’s release of his long form certificate — followed only days later by the President somberly announcing to the nation that he had given the order to kill this country’s and the world’s most wanted man. We can’t fully appreciate yet just how much damage this has done to one of the right’s primary narratives about Obama. And it wouldn’t have happened at all without a showman of Trump’s ability to command media attention for literally any claim, no matter how insane or transparently self-serving.
Thank you, Mr. Trump, for your service to this country.
Only complete morons believed for a micro-second that Donald Trump was actually going to run for president. But he did do the president a giant favor by grabbing all the loose ends of dead-ender Birtherism, tying them all up into one giant ball of Stupid, and thereby letting the president set the whole thing on fire.
The result is a boost in the polls not only for the president, but for the Democratic Party as well. And it’s a boost in virtually every area, not just areas related to national defense and terrorism.
Yes, voters believe President Obama has done a stellar job on terrorism. Fully 75% approve of the job he has done on terrorism, including nearly half (47%) who believe this strongly, and by a 16-point margin, a majority also approves of his handling of foreign policy (55% approve, 39% disapprove). By an overwhelming margin voters now trust President Obama to handle terrorism more than they do the GOP (Obama +21), a dramatic—if expected—turn of events. And not insignificantly, 11% of voters say they are more likely to vote for the President in 2012 because of the death of Osama bin Laden, including 14% of independents.
But Obama now leads Republicans on multiple dimensions, most of which have nothing to do with terrorism or national security. On six other dimensions tested, voters prefer President Obama’s approach to that of the Republicans in Congress on all but one. While they trust the Republicans in Congress by a narrow three points on the deficit, Obama leads the GOP on the economy (Obama +6), jobs (Obama +4), Social Security (Obama +13), and health care (Obama +11). Voters also afford Obama a 13-point margin on “sharing your values”, long a perceived strength of the GOP.
Donald Trump took up the mantle of The Stupid and led with his chin. Mistah Trump, he dead.