[captioning made possible by nbc universal] chris: can't stand truth. they said he wasn't born here, isn't an american. when he went out this week and dug up his own birth certificate, they dug up new charges. isn't the real charge that he's black? the daily show. he did it himself. walked out there, the president of the united states and took on the birthers. is that how it's done now? you do go on oprah, "the view." and finally, the wedding and all that it means for britain and its fans.

welcome to the show. with us today, the huffering on the post's howard fineman. cbs's kelly o'donnell, cnn oo,demroir glory and the "chicago tribune"'s clarence page. first, was the birthing question a master stroke? no sooner did he release the birth certificate than donald trump asked for the presidents -- president's academic reference and came up to this issue of basketball. >> you look at gasoline prices and he said he has no control of it which he does if he gets off the phone or off his basketball court. chris: sean hannity conceded that the birth certificate put that to rest but he came up with a new loaded topic that night. >> we have this issue the birth certificate.

this was never a defining issue for me but i find it odd. all the president had to do was what he did today. release it and move on. we're going to talk about a controversy we discussed last night on the program and that has to do with the church, that barack obama and his family takened on easter sunday. >> let's talk about the black church now. rush limbaugh on that same day. >> the first black president icon offereded nothing but a weak song entitled "hope and change." we have recordings from the ruling class admitting they don't know what he stands for. chris: he put out the burtskert all of a sudden this other stuff kept coming. grades in school, basketball, the black church. your thoughts? >> my thoughts are that the people who don't like barack obama are trying to erase him

from history, that they refuse too accept his legitimacy. george w. bush, if anything, was considered to be somehow almost dangerously too much of an american, wouldn't listen to the rest of the world. but barack obama, because of his name, because he's a liberal, because he's from a big city, because he's a lawyer, all these things that people distrust and add on top the fact that he's an african-american and you have a brew when produces the sentiment in these people that we won't kep -- accept his legitimacy. chris: it's like they want to get him off that list of presidents. >> i think that's what we're seeing here, something more visceral but also historical. which this is a time when populous rage is raging. donald trump, a very rich guy, you may have heard is coming off like a regular guy, a man of the people, archie bunker, by giving voice, the same way

pat buchanan, ross perot, give voice to the rage of the moment. and that is against the establishments in general and barack obama is a personification for it. cliff: he couldn't have written that great book. too well written. it -- he couldn't have gotten into columbia, it's too hard. so racially tinted. >> when you push on that door and it was clearly a reference to fritsch action. you push on -- aaffirmative action. you open that door and i open yourself up to charges of racism. when you speak in those coded words, you open yourself up. he's appealing to this group of people that essentially wants to annul the obama presidency. chris: what i heard, call me naive but i thought once he put

out that birth certificate, getting it through the lawyer and getting it certified, everything the critics wanted. i thought that would stop them. >> you were so naive, chris. >> they did pivot very quickly. one of my favorite quotes was trump, i hope it checks out beautifully. such a graceful phrase after he pummeled him for weeks. chris: he wouldn't look at it. >> people were pressing him and he needs time to review it himself. what trump has been able to do, though, is put a face on that movement when a lot of it had been nameless people and so forth. a prominent, prominent person, a rich guy to take this on and for the president, kind of difficult for him to have to be on that podium with the seal of the united states behind him and put this out. but he was able to lance that

boil and turn trump into the carnival barker without naming him as such. chris: at this point do i have to show my college grades now? >> donald trump is a master salesman. he knows the crowd they're selling to. chris: who are they? >> the populist, angry, tea partyish and other obama hating republican base, who are interested in budget cuts and abortion but more than that as clarence said, they have an anger that they almost can't always explain for powerful people, and to get somebody like donald trump, rich and from new york, it somehow seems like one of them, despite his limousine and his hair and everything. he's one of them. that'sst what those people want to here. -- hear. >> he's like hugh dean yeah -- houdini. lands in his own helicopter,

trump all over it. but i'm really one of you because i earned my money is hard way. and how did barack obama? chris: every african-american i know has come up to me in the last couple of weeks and said something about this guy trump. >> i got stopped at a train station the other way. chris: there were suspicions about some people. >> this was the 2008 campaign we were afraid was going to happen. all this innuendo, the racial coding, the questioning. what's this college application all about? it's about did he take the place of a more deserving white kid? that's the subtle undertone. this is the ugly campaign. trump is going to get out of this in june once his celebrity apprentice is over and he'll leave all this rubble around for everyone else to pick up. in the meantime there's a lot of anger directed back now in

obama's favor because of this humiliation that the office of the presidency has been put through. >> trump put hirms in the same conversation with barack obama in a split screen. there aren't enough real estate deals in the world to give him that moment. so a lot of this was purely about ego on the run. >> i don't think it's over necessarily. talking about people i know in new hampshire, he's inquiring of the right people to hire. whether he hires them, we don't know. clarence might be right. he can buy them if he wants. >> we know he can fire people. chris: when the birther talk was getting a measure of credence with independent voters and last week's "new york times," when asked if they thought that barack obama was born in this country, only 52% of independents said yes. and that was a trouble spot. we put it to our panel, will

the birther talk hurt the g.o.p. zphow in the present? it's polite 6-6. you folks believe it will still be around next year. >> oh, area, this is the tip of the iceberg of social change and a lot of long term anxiety. >> for independents, this is the kind of unseemly issue and argument that does not bring them into the fold. >> i think whoever the nominee is going to say i think it's terrible that these birthers are out there. i have nothing to do with these birthers. meanwhile they'll be working the underside. i think it will help the republicans. >> can people vote for president that get serious about it. they're not serious right now. chris: sit smarts to do this now? >> no, i think it's smart to do it now but it's going to stay alive. chris: was he smart to butt it out this week? >> might as well. >> definitely. >> stopped things in their

tracks. chris: before we break, the preposterous birther claims out there were more far-fetcheded than most political attacks but there's plenty for painting democrats as un-american. they plasted george bush with greek american michael decaulk is in a fake ad. >> he was a white northern european heritage. thomas jefferson was of white northern european heritage. john f. kennedy was of white northern european heritage. george herbert walker bush is of white northern european heritage. but michael dukakis? bush. he's whiter.

chris: bush attacked four years later on clinton. >> this kind of attack shows just how separate the bush campaign has become. yes, i did go to moscow by train in 1969. i struck up a conversation with the man on the seat next to me. he gave me a package to take to moscow and leave it across from lenin's tomb. >> isn't it true that you burned an american flag in red square? >> i tried to burn an american flag once. i didn't like it. gave off toxic fumes so i didn't inhail. chris: ask and when bush 43 was running against john kerry, there was those infamous swift vote ads. saturday night life was on the case. >> i started taking sniper fire. three of us were pinned down.

that's when john kerry turned to me and said you know, i don't think americans pay enough taxes. >> kerry ordered us not to shoot the enemy because he was against the death penalty. >> everyone thought it was an ambush. john kerry jumped off the boat and chased after them. within minutes, he said these men are in love and he conducted a gay marriage ceremony. cliff: when we come back -- chris:. when we come back, has barack obama changed the job description? and scoops and predictions.

chris: welcome back. jang kennedy brought charisma to the presidential job description. ronald reagan added great

communicator to the job description. but after reagan the best communicators have won, and now obama is everywhere. has he added availability to the job description? he's doing it again this past week. and his numbers go up. >> his numbers go up but he's very good at the oprah appearances. but i would make the case that i think we've actually sometimes seen a little bit too much of barack obama. even ribbon cutting. you can devalue the currency a little bit. i would argue we see him more than any president but we feel we know less about who the guy is. chris: let me go back to a thought i've strangled to death already. howard and i noticed this. it seems like when he does these flurries of regular people interviews, like oprah with the brackets and the sweet 16 in basketball. he reaches an audience that

normally don't watch. but it seems like that gets his numbers up to about 50 and then he fades for a couple of weeks his numbers go down. >> my explanation, maybe its influenced by the fact i'm totally online with the huffington post. barack obama was the first viral candidate and president. if he's not out feeding the beast all the time he loses his platform. he has 18 million face wook -- facebook friends. >> who doesn't? chris: kelly, does this mean future presidents are going to have to be, just like kennedy and reagan -- are all future presidents going to have to be 24/7 types? >> they will have to do things that barack obama broke through, being a sitting president on a comedy talk show. we hadn't seen that before. but if you're not good at it they won't do it. chris: can we elect someone

who's not good at it? >> he's good at it and his youthfulness plays into it. chris: we're comfortable with aim -- him as a debonair light manner. >> for everybody who says he's exposed too much, there are others who say he needs to get out there much because he's his own best picture. we were living in a 24/7 news environment and how are you going to react? do you come out with number one, the president on this or a surrogate? >> the trick in this environment is not to be too hot. the president is the perfect guy to constantly be out there on the internet but not seen an overwhelming overbearing president. chris: when he's out there he doesn't give you a lot of himself. >> but you have to pick the

kind of appearances that you would do. i would argue barack obama probably gets more out of going on oprah than he does giving a speech somewhere on some policy issue. chris: looking at the array of possible presidents four years, six years from now, is there anybody that can do what he's doing? >> let's say he's a romney or a pawlenty who becomes the nominee? chris: do they have the skill? >> that's my question. >> donald trump is using that same environmental environment, but he's so hot that he's burning up the track. i don't think he's sustain it even if he does run. >> you want to be viral without being spammed. chris: i think we're getting in the right move here. >> when i get too many of these barack obama mailings i say oh, not again. here's a guy to, in a couple days he hits open remarks goes to the tragedy in alabama with

the tornadoes. >> by going to alabama -- the rap on obama was that he was elite somehow. seeing more of barack obama hugging people who are in a time of need is a great thing. chris: sit possible that the same people don't watch all these shows in that the people who watch espn, espn2, want to see him once in a while. not all the time much >> just us. chris: thank you.

chris: welcome back. howard, tell me something i don't know. >> a lot of the big bundlers who rayed money for then-candidate barack obama are ambassadors around the world with cushy spots. i think they'll find that the president would like them to return, to maybe leave their jobs, come back and bundle some more.

they better enjoy where they are now. chris: those were great jobs, weren't they? >> we wouldn't know. so when congress comes back, expect the senate democrats to have a vote on oil subsidies, ending them. but you know what, it's not going to pass and watch about a half a dozen or more democrats actually are going to vote against ending oil subsidies. chris: yes, but they get what they want, republicans on record. >> got that tiny glimpse of gabby giffords going to florida. but back in her home district, republicans say there's absolute silence. no one's raising money or trying to do anything to challenge her. even though she is really impaireded now in able to do all the duties of that job, there's no movement to try to challenge her. chris: decency. >> another reason why barack obama might have timed his birth certificate announcement the way he did is that jerome

kearsey, famous for the swift boaters, has a new book coming out on may 17. the titles is "where's the birth certificate." ? chris: good timing there. i hope he sells no books. the question this week, what snapshot of the royal wedding will you personally most remember? we'll be right back.

chris: welcome back. this week's big question, what snapshot of the royal wedding this friday will you remember most? >> kate middleton's parents. the commoners learning how to behave in the royal company, but in the process saving the royal family from itself. the commoners save the royals.

>> i think the couple driving away in the aston martin kind of looking at each other like let's blow this town and let's go off alone together. we've had the party. now it's just the two of us. >> after the balcony when william takes her hand and begins to head in she turns to get one more glimpse. that's a girl there for the first time and wanted to soak in the minute. chris: i loved the wave from the chaunchksh church. >> i love airplanes. number one, nobody beats the brits on ceremony. they're fantastic. at that moment when you have this gentle scene of love down here below and then the mighty british imperial air force comes roaring over the top i got tears in my eyes. i said this is why there'll always be an england. chris: it was a great day for television.

thanks for a great round able totop -- table.