Opinion: Trump must own up personally to his birther mistake

Libertarian Party presidential candidate Gary Johnson was widely ridiculed this week for asking “And what is Aleppo?� after being asked in an MSNBC interview about what he would do about the violence in that Syrian city. But an abashed Johnson redeemed a bit of good will by admitting that he had goofed.

“I blanked,� he said. “It happens, and it will happen again during the course of this campaign. Can I name every city in Syria? No. Should I have identified Aleppo? Yes. Do I understand its significance? Yes.� (Johnson also suggested that he thought Aleppo was an acronym.)

Contrast Johnson’s alacrity in confessing error to Donald J. Trump’s continued refusal to acknowledge a much more consequential lapse: his longstanding insistence that President Obama was not born in the United States.

In recent days various Trump surrogates have suggested that Trump, in fact, now realizes that the so-called birther bandwagon he led was on the road to nowhere.

“Donald Trump believes now that [Obama] was born in the United States,� former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani said this week. “I believe it. He believes it. We all believe it. It took a long time to get out.� On Friday Trump’s campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, also attested to this change of heart, telling CNN’s Chris Cuomo that Trump “believes President Obama was born here.�

So why doesn’t Trump himself admit that he was wrong? Even a sheepish Rick Perry-esque “Oops� would be an improvement on his continued silence. And by allowing surrogates to speak for him, Trump is hardly exhibiting the take-charge attitude that is supposed to be his selling point as a candidate.

Until he personally confesses error, Trump will be echoing Chevy Chase’s character in the movie “Fletch�: “It takes a big man to admit when he’s wrong. I am not a big man.�

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