Birtherism will never die (Or – what’s the opposite of 27%?) Now with bonus gaslighting!

Apparently while I was down in Rodentville and too busy to pay much attention to anything except whether I was about to step on an anole, Team Trump decided to revive the claim that Clinton started the whole That black guy can’t be president because he’s not an American (I am not a racist!) thing, AKA Birtherism. And like all good Republicans, they managed to spin it into another example of the great and brilliant wonderfulness that is Trump. Obser-rev (Washington Times):

Donald Trump’s campaign moved to take the “birther” issue off the plate by releasing a statement Thursday night acknowledging that Barack Obama was born in the U.S. and even taking credit for solving the issue.

The statement accuses the Hillary Clinton campaign of bringing up the issue in the first place and says Mr. Trump deserves credit for having put the factual issue to rest by getting Mr. Obama to release his long-form birth certificate.

“Having successfully obtained President Obama’s birth certificate when others could not, Mr. Trump believes that President Obama was born in the United States,” said Jason Miller, the Trump campaign’s senior communications adviser.

Magnifique! Having successfully installed hidden cameras in the bathrooms of several black people, Mr. Trump believes that that they don’t have tails. Such a bold stance on racism! Even bolder than a stance next to a black man! That’s sure to impress people who are OK with the GOP’s little racism problem, provided it’s covered with something, like a clean white drop cloth. No, NOT a white drop cloth. Something other than that.

(As an aside, I don’t recall who might rightly claim s/he got Obama to produce his birth certificate, and at this point I don’t care. Anyone who takes part in Birtheristics is a creep of high degree.)

But will the latest PIVOT! do Trump any good? Probably not.

One way that Donald Trump launched onto the political stage five years ago was through his fervent claims that President Barack Obama was not a U.S. citizen. Though Obama has since produced birth certificates certifying his birth in Hawaii, recently, such rumors have been given new life by commentators and pundits on the right. But just how many continue to think the president was not born in the U.S.? And which voters hold such views?

Seventy-two percent of registered Republican voters still doubt President Obama’s citizenship, according to a recent NBC News|SurveyMonkey poll conducted in late June and early July of more than 1,700 registered voters. And this skepticism even exists among Republicans high in political knowledge.

Whoopsies.

It’s hard to see how contradicting a belief held by nearly three-quarters of Republican voters – a belief that likely helped endear Trump to them – works out well. So I look forward to the GOP’s crab walk between Yes We’re Racists. Vote for Us! and No, We Love the Blacks. Vote for Us!

I’d like to look forward to the end of Birtherism, because there’s enough bigotry-flavored idiocy in the world as it is, but I don’t think it’s going away. In fact, I predict it’s going to increase once Obama is out of office. (I also predict that in the short term there will be much swaggering and back patting as the rootin’, tootin’, underpants pollutin’ dopes congratulate one another on keeping Obama from cancelling the election and staying in power.)

I think a hundred years from now schools in infrared states will teach little kids that for eight years America was held in the flaccid iron grip of evil dictator and arch-wimp Balack Shaft Hussein Superfly Obama bin Laden and his Henchdemon Hitlery White Zombie Clenis, until they were defeated by Teddy Christ Cruz and his Hard Punching Rough Riders of Justice. (Repeat for any other president who fails the shirt box test.) And they’ll continue to insist they aren’t racist.

Update – Bonus gaslighting from the Garbage Overflow Party:

In his statement Thursday night, Trump spokesman Jason Miller said, “Mr. Trump did a great service to the President and the country by bringing closure to the issue that Hillary Clinton and her team first raised.”

By Monday they’ll be calling on President Obama to thank Trump.