A Fool and His Money

By Mark Lucas
News Editor
     This crazy presidential campaign has been interrupted by a voice of reason.  The breath of fresh air comes from New York developer and Hair Club for Men model Donald Trump.  On Wednesday, he offered to give $5 million to charity if Democratic President and confessed pothead Barack Obama would release his college records and passport paperwork.
     Why?
      The Donald said the move would make Obama more transparent.  Despite four years of constant and intense scrutiny by the world media, apparently the President of the United States of America remains a mystery.  If elected to a second term, who knows what Obama might do ... even though he has already had the opportunity to do it.
      Similar concerns were raised during the presidential campaign in 2008. Republicans accused Obama of being a foreign-born Muslim with alien ideas.  One commercial seemed to suggest that if Obama were elected, the people of the United States would be attacked by a pack of wolves.
      Well, it's four years later.  I don't see mosques everywhere, Korans being read in public schools or senior citizens being ripped to pieces by wolves.  In fact, it's pretty much been business as usual.  The Great Recession was averted, the Iraq occupation is over, Osama Bin Laden is dead and millions of additional Americans have medical insurance.  OH! THE HORROR OF IT ALL!
      So, if Obama releases this additional paperwork, what new fact does Trump hope to reveal about the president?  Perhaps, Obama is described as a Muslim or an immigrant on some obscur document.  That doesn't matter to the law. The birth certificate is what counts.  Obama might have lied deliberately in college to gain admission or win a scholarship.  Perhaps a weary bureaucrat just checked the wrong box by mistake.  It doesn't matter to the voters.  Obama has already passed the test of character and earned the public trust.  He's not an unknown commodity anymore. Romney is.
       So, why is Trump offering $5 million for Obama's paperwork?  Maybe he's coming down with the same crazy billionaire's disease that afflicted Howard Hughes.  It's easy to lose grip of reality when you are rich enough to say and do whatever you want without contradiction by your inner circle.
      I hope that Obama produces the documents.  Since he gets to name the charity, he can really get Trump's goat by making him donate the $5 million to the Democratic National Committee or ACORN.  How about the American Civil Liberties Union?  No, wait!  The Better Business Bureau! YES! That would stick in the Donald's craw!