>>>>>So why, all of a sudden, now?
>>>>
>>>>That's an excellent question. He should have let the "controversy" rage as long as possible. Let the birthers waste their time on something known to be completely harmless.
>>>
>>>I bet if they thought Trump could ride it to the nomination they would have <bg>
>>
>>It was probably a recommendation from a group of policy wonks/wonkettes in subbasement 3C somewhere. Propagandists know that if you keep repeating lies often enough, people start to believe them. The birther issue has been going on so long that probably a significant fraction of the US electorate believes it.
>>
>>So, I was wrong - the birther controversy has not been completely harmless to the Dems. Party strategists probably decided a nice round 18 months or so will be needed to reverse that damage, and allow the tide of resentment among Republicans that they were duped by their own to rise as high as possible.
>>
>>On the other hand, I may be blaming malice for that which should be attributed to stupidity :-/
>
>Of course when it all started half the American population (or half of that portion who could name the current president) didn't know you had to be born here be president and of those who did some didn't know Hawaii was part of the US and some thought either Kenya or Indonesia was.

There was McCain & Panama too, the whole issue was front-burner for a while.