The reason I'm writing this second piece is not because there is any more information out on this guy, but more from the reactions that I'm seeing to him. I always find it amazing how many so called conservative commentators, who's lively hood is wrapped up in following politics miss the obvious.
I think that there are two reasons for this. The first is that conservatives are kind of like battered women when in comes to electing candidates. They see some one who says all the right things, and then think that they can ignore the past. A clear example is John McCain, who was re-elected to the senate for Arizona after campaigning on things like immigration reform. He actually got the people to believe in large numbers that he was going to act as an immigration hawk after having co-authored an amnesty bill with Ted Kennedy. I am not aware of any other single Republican in the senate who has betrayed the cause of immigration reform (and when I say immigration reform I mean locking down the boarder and giving ICE the resources that they need to do their job) more than John McCain, but for those few months on the campaign trail, he said such pretty things about how he was going to champion the problem of an open boarder. And like a battered woman who keeps going back to the man who abuses her, the voters in Arizona voted John McCain back into office.
The other reason that many conservatives find themselves supporting a political figure that they otherwise would not is that the left tends to throw out completely insane attacks against them and all rational people feel compelled to defend them. And when you play defense for someone you tend to put them in the good guys category in your mind. So when Donald Trump is viciously attacked for bringing up the eligibility issue on the basis that it must mean he is a racist, it's hard not to think of him as a friend to the conservative cause. And don't get me wrong, I like the fact that he is bringing light to the issue. It's refreshing to see it discussed openly without the point and counter point being the positions that A) of course all the birthers are crazy but Obama should still release his birth certificate to end the discussion, and B) yes the birthers are crazy but really we should just ignore them. Trump has clearly demonstrated that the side protecting Obama doesn't have any arguments, only insults. But as I mentioned in my last post, that just means that he has a better read on what the public wants than clowns like Karl Rove do.
So when evaluating a candidate, don't fall into the temptation of either forgetting their past, or losing sight of their real downsides because a bunch of crazy arguments are levied against them on the news.
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