“I do not understand the cost benefit here… what voter is gonna vote for [Mitt Romney] because he is seen with Donald Trump? The cost of appearing with this bloviating ignoramus is obvious, it seems to me.”

In a rare moment of pique, that’s how mild-mannered, conservative writer George Will described Donald Trump – the business magnate, author, self-obsessed TV personality, and part-time political expert… before Trump resumed his birther ravings with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer.

Here’s just a slice of Blitzer’s interview (May 29) prior to The Donald hosting a fundraiser for Mitt Romney in Las Vegas.

BLITZER: …I don’t understand why you’re doubling down on this birther issue after the state of Hawaii formally says this is the legitimate birth certificate. He was born in Hawaii. Why are you going through all of this, Donald?

TRUMP: Well, a lot of people don’t agree with that birth certificate. A lot of people do not think it’s authentic.

BLITZER: But if the state of Hawaii authorizes it, if the state of Hawaii says, this is official, he was born in Hawaii on this date, here it is, why do you deny that?

TRUMP: A lot of people do not think it was an authentic certificate. ….

BLITZER: Donald, have you seen the actual newspaper announcements within days of his birth in Honolulu, for example, “The Honolulu Star- Bulletin”? We will put it up there. You see the birth announcement back in 1961. ….

TRUMP: Am I allowed to talk, if you could stop defending Obama?

BLITZER: Donald, Donald, you’re beginning to sound a little ridiculous, I have to tell you.

TRUMP: No, I think you are, Wolf. Let me tell you something. I think you sound ridiculous. And if you would ask me a question and let me answer it, instead of making…

BLITZER: Here’s the question. Did the conspiracy start in 1961, when “The Honolulu-Star Bulletin” and “”The Honolulu Advertiser” contemporaneously published announcements that he was born in Hawaii?

TRUMP: That’s right. And many people put those announcements in because they wanted to get the benefit of being so-called born in this country. It was something that was done by many people, even if they weren’t born in the country. You know it, and so do I. And so do a lot of your viewers. ….

BLITZER: But the state of Hawaii says it’s not an opinion, it’s a fact.

TRUMP: No, I don’t think so. I think if you look at the birth certificate, take a look and you tell me, really. You analyze the birth certificate. There are many people that don’t agree with that birth certificate. They don’t think it’s authentic, Wolf.

BLITZER: I don’t know when you say many people who don’t agree…

TRUMP: Many people.

BLITZER: Like who?

TRUMP: There are many people…

BLITZER: Give me — give me a name of somebody….

TRUMP: There are many people — I don’t give names.

That’s nice of Trump not to name names… if this were the 50’s McCarthy hearings.

It might surprise some readers to learn that I have no problemwith Donald Trump speaking on anything. I do have a problem with a cable news-media who seem obsessed with not only reporting Trump’s every opinion but in giving this “bloviating ignoramus” air time to talk about issues that have been thoroughly debunked long ago!

Trump and the “birthers” continue to insist that President Obama, the state of Hawaii, the courts as well as the mainstream media are all covering up the massive lie that Obama was born in the U.S.

“Repetition,” Franklin Roosevelt once said, “does not transform a lie into the truth.”

Sadly, we’re all reminded about the lapse of authenticity by some politicians after the much publicized trial of John Edwards who repeatedly lied about an affair during his campaign for president. Although the majority of federal and local lawmakers are honest, decent people, we see yet another example of confirmation bias – “the tendency of our brain to easily accept information compatible with what we already know,” as cultural analyst Jamie O’Boyle points out, “and minimize information that contradicts what we already know,even if what we ‘know’ isn’t true!”

While I appreciate Blitzer holding Trump’s feet to the fire, I’m mystified as to why the CNN news anchor feels compelled to put the rantings of self-absorbed real estate mogul on TV,again!

Six days earlier, Blitzer conducted a thoughtful interview with former Secretary of State, General Colin Powell. When the same newsman gives almost equal airtime to an airhead like Trump it only serves to confirm the bias of those individuals who are willing to believe anything he says: “He’s rich, politically connected, outrageous, and on TV, therefore, he mustbe right!

Wrong!

Being financially astute, politically connected, and on TV does not automatically confer common sense. And Trump couldn’t find common sense if it were gilded, gift-wrapped and placed in his hands.

Or as George Will so ably puts it, “Donald Trump is redundant evidence that if your net worth is high enough, your IQ can be very low and you can still intrude into American politics.”