The dearth of excitement amongst the Republicans considering their nominees for President became clearer last week when businessman and television personality Donald Trump ranked second behind Mitt Romney in two different surveys.
A Public Policy Institute poll of New Hampshire voters had the Apprentice host with 21 percent of the vote, trailing only Romney's 27 percent ranking. And a Wall Street Journal-NBC News national poll released a day later had Trump tied with Mike Huckabee (who shows no inclination that he wants to lose his Fox News weekend gig and actually run) for second place with 17 percent, behind "Mittens" 21 percent mark. And amongst tea partiers, Trump trumphed the field, indicating that part of the GOP electorate – the part that is actively following these things, things nationally and locally – aren't very satisfied by the so called front runners (Romney, Tim Pawlenty, Newt Gingrich, etc).
Yesterday on CNN's State of The Union, host Candy Crowley seemed almost embarrassed to say that though she did speak with Trump about China, Libya and other substantive issues, she somehow got stuck on the whole so called "birther" issue; that is, the contention amongst a significant portion of the GOP electorate (according to polls) who question whether President Obama was born in the U.S. An issue that has never gone away, but that has given a huge boost for Trump.
This part of the exchange between Crowley and Trump yesterday:
TRUMP: I don't like to talk about this issue too much because I really would rather talk about China, I would really rather talk about what OPEC is doing to destroy us. I would really rather talk about other things. But I'll be honest with you, I started this and I heard the question for the first time four weeks ago and I assumed, although I had heard about it for years, I assumed that he was born in the United States, meaning in Hawaii. I assumed that. The more I go into it, the more suspect it is.
Now, he doesn't have his birth certificate or he's not showing it. And I wish he did have one, but he doesn't have it. There is a huge difference between a birth certificate — and I can show you mine, it's upstairs and it's in great detail and it's certified by everybody and it's got signatures all over it. It's got a birth certificate.
He shows a certificate of live birth. And a certificate of live birth is easy to get and it is not the same thing. It's a totally different thing. And in many states a certificate of live birth you can't even get married or you can't get a driver's license with it.
The fact is his own family doesn't know which hospital he was born in this Hawaii. And here's one other thing, wherever you were born, I can go to that hospital, and I can find out the name of your doctor, the name of the — the number of your room…
CROWLEY: My hospital…
TRUMP: …excuse me — how much you paid, how much this, how much that. I can find the information. I guarantee you my hospital has all the information, how much my parents paid for that unfortunate day when I was brought into this world, this rather crazy world.
But the fact is, nobody has any information. And his people in the United States don't even know which hospital — his relatives don't even know which hospital he was born in.
So it's a very strange situation. That's all I can tell you. And, you know, it's a very sad thing because the people, the birthers, they got labeled and they got labeled so negatively, and even the word "birther" is a negative word.
And I always tell people, I was a very good student; I went to the best college; I went to great schools; I had very high aptitude. Because, if you come out and say, and even question, the press goes wild. They get angry at even the question. And the fact is, if he wasn't born in this country, he shouldn't be the president of the United States.
This article appears in Apr 7-13, 2011.