Careful readers of The Rundown will note that before this week there had been nary a mention of the birthers debate in the United States, the constant chatter that questioned whether U.S. President Barack Obama was actually born in America.
The nattering had increased recently, when Donald Trump, the host of a celebrity reality TV show and something of a real estate developer, had been using the birther issue as a way to gauge a run for the presidency next year. When the birth question didn't work, Trump assailed Obama's qualifications to attend the Ivy League universities Columbia and Harvard.
(For those inveterate viewers who watch The Apprentice, The Donald's reality soap opera, he has pledged to put the show on hiatus if he becomes president. That probably goes down as Trump's first campaign promise.)
The nonsense surrounding Obama's birth ended on Wednesday, when the White House released the president's long-form birth certificate, showing that Obama was born in Honolulu on Aug. 4, 1961.
Obama used the opportunity to stress it was time to move on, away from this "distraction" to far more important issues. "We do not have time for this kind of silliness," he said. Obama did not mention Trump by name, although he made a reference to "sideshows and carnival barkers."
Trump was quick to spin the issue to his side, saying he was "honoured, frankly, to have played such a big role in hopefully, hopefully, getting rid of this issue."
With any luck, hopefully, hopefully, The Rundown will be rid of this issue, too.
