The point is that Nothing is minor. The content of the charge does not matter, only the intensity with which it is made. This one is a tiny trial balloon. It is too early to do the indignity song and dance but it is a warning of what is to come. If a conservative candidate can ignore these things and not react to or comment on them but continue being optimistic like Reagan and talk about the future rather than on how bad Obama has been, then the effect will be minimized. Just as surely as a candidate, Cruz maybe, stops to "explain" or protest or deny or apologize he is finished, no matter how trivial the charge. When the candidate reacts in any way then the voters begin to believe that the charges are serious, whatever their content. It is an exceedingly rare Republican who can refrain from reacting.
Alinsky teaches, correctly IMHO, that ridicule is mans’ most potent weapon. To which there is no effective response.
So the goal of leveraging any charge is to do it in such a way that prrempts ridicule, doesn’t give it enough time to occur and work.
So it’s not just that these charges are minor in nature. We agree that minor charges can be frightenly effective. It’s the combination of them being both minor AND occuring early enough for them (and those making them) to be ridiculed.
And early BS/easily ridiculed charges like this help innoculate against later/harder to ridicule ones because they undermine credibility. Recall Reagan’s “There you go again” line.