OPINION:
Donald Trump won the day.
After building up Friday morning’s press conference, saying he would unveil a major announcement, Mr. Trump got all three major cable networks to carry more than 30 minutes of war-hero veterans giving their endorsement of him — hitting on everything from his ideal temperament to great stamina.
After the glowing character assessments were delivered, Mr. Trump took the podium and said (clearly and unequivocally): “President Barack Obama was born in the United States. Period. Now we all want to get back to making America strong and great again.” thereby ending the birther controversy he helped stir up after Mr. Obama’s election in 2008.
Then, in a mic-drop moment, Mr. Trump left the stage. Show over.
“To the average voter, this will make media questions about Trump’s ’past birtherism’ look hysterical and pointless,” focus-group guru Frank Luntz wisely tweeted after Mr. Trump’s speech.
Yes, cable news and talking heads are mad. They feel they were duped. They were. They’ll spend all day on Friday discussing who was really responsible for the birther movement — Mr. Trump or Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign, and fact-check the businessman until the last show goes off the air at 11 p.m. Eastern standard time.
None of it will matter.
Because tomorrow there will be a new story, and Mrs. Clinton’s attacks that Mr. Trump is a racist who believes Mr. Obama wasn’t born in the U.S. will no longer have any teeth. It won’t be the zinger she can use at their first debate, less than 10 days away.
Charles Krauthammer, who has been against Mr. Trump’s candidacy, wrote an editorial Friday about Mr. Trump’s path to victory.
“Clinton ads keep showing actual Trump sound bites meant to shock,” Mr. Krauthammer wrote. “Yet her [poll] numbers are dropping, his rising. How? Trump never goes on the defensive. He merely creates new Trumps.”
Mr. Krauthammer then wrote of Mr. Trump’s softening in the past several weeks — his going into black precincts to try to win black votes, his immigration pivot, his child-care proposal and reversal on birtherism (which campaign manger Kellyanne Conway and top surrogates telegraphed was coming).
“Orwell was wrong. You don’t need repression. You need only the sensory overload of an age of numbingly ephemeral social media,” Mr. Krauthammer wrote. “In this surreal election season, there is no past.”
Rich Lowry, another conservative #NeverTrump pundit, also dedicated his column this week to Mr. Trump’s path to victory.
“All it took for Trump to wipe away most of Hillary Clinton’s lead, built at an excellent convention and on Trump’s subsequent weeks of self-inflicted wounds, was acting like a somewhat normal presidential candidate,” Mr. Lowry wrote. “Have a meeting with a foreign leader. Give policy speeches. Read from a teleprompter. Use his NPR voice when appropriate.”
He continues: “If the kitchen sink hasn’t killed off Trump, what else is there? The Clinton campaign has already used his greatest hits of most offensive statements in countless TV ads. I was appalled that Trump mocked a disabled reporter, but even I’m sick of seeing the clip every other time I turn on the TV. If none of this has sunk Trump and the race gets even closer, what’s left that is going to have a new and different shock value?”
After today, birtherism is no longer an issue. At some point in this election season, Mrs. Clinton may just have to give a speech about herself and her own policy ideas, rather than making this election season a referendum on Mr. Trump — for that doesn’t seem to be working.
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