Michael Daly of the New York Daily News wrote what I think is the definitive article about Trump in yesterday's paper.

Donald Trump's birther nonsense is a deplorable distraction from the issues - time to trash him

Michael Daly, NY Daily News

Tuesday, April 12th 2011

Let's just fire him.

Let's banish him from our thoughts and forget him.

Let's not even mention his name.

I don't even want to type it.

Here we are in the midst of our longest war and ongoing financial calamity and this guy tries to get attention for himself with this birther nonsense about our President and commander in chief.

This birther-in-chief is not even a clown.

Clowns know they are being absurd.

In case you don't know who I'm talking about, I'll give you some hints.

Most bizarre hairdo in New York.

Most overinflated ego in New York.

Ugliest buildings in New York.

Tacky, tacky, tacky.

Still don't know? I'll give you some more hints.

Vulgar, vulgar, vulgar.

Pout of a trout, preen of a peacock.

Casinos that lose money.

Foreign banks bamboozled by the myth into giving him excessive loans.

Millions of business wanna-bes bamboozled by the myth into believing he is some kind of role model.

Billionaire who often seems to owe more than he owns.

Germophobe known to open doors with his elbow.

Truthophobe known to put his foot in his mouth.

Rented land in Westchester to Moammar Khadafy in 2009 so the dictator could pitch his Bedouin tent.

When caught doing it, claimed via a spokesman the land was "leased on a short term basis to Middle Eastern partners, who may or may not have a relationship with Mr. Khadafy."

"We are looking into the matter ..." and said he had "no idea" Khadafy was the tenant.

Seemed to completely forget that statement when he subsequently bragged on CNN, "With Khadafy... I got in one night more money than I would have gotten all year for this piece of land up in Westchester and then didn't let him use it. That's called being intelligent."

When CNN asked if he had retained the Khadafy money said, "Do I still have it? What does that mean?"

Reported that he had given the money to charity. Then declared it had all been part of a brilliant plan.

Told CNN, "In fact, I said, when I did it, I'm gonna take Khadafy's money, I'm not gonna make it easy on him, and I'm going to give the money to charity."

Now says this is how foreign policy should be conducted.

"I don't want to use the word 'screwed,' but I screwed him. That's what we should be doing."

And this is a guy who is talking about running for President.

Somehow, he ran second in a presidential poll of likely Republican voters in New Hampshire.

Maybe the Republicans up there are as bamboozled as the foreign banks and the business wanna-bes.

Only, with this birther nonsense, there is no longer any excuse for being fooled.

He showed that to promote himself he is willing to play on the paranoid imaginings of folks whose real problem with Barack Obama has nothing to do with the place of his birth.

What they cannot stand is that Obama was born black and proved we really are a country where anybody can grow up to become President.

They are obsessed with finding some way to cast Obama as an Other, ineligible to be President.

"Hey, he can't be President," they say. "He's bla... I mean foreign-born."

Anybody who seeks to capitalize on that deserves to be fired - and forgotten.

mdaly@nydailynews.com

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics...l#ixzz1JQU1RyNs