regarding “Trump the clown” (your assessment, not mine) -
He’s got an opportunity to show what he’s made of now. He could either continue to beat the “show us the records” drum, or he could stand up and say “Look, it was a legitimate question, I am the only one who would raise it and get an answer. That shows my ability to take on difficult issues and get results, which are attributes of a good President”.
Time will tell.
Yes, I generally agree. There was nothing necessarily wrong with asking for the long form. Presidents and politicians get asked for background information all the time. My point on the "birther" stuff is that is should NEVER have been made a prominent issue. The likelihood of some massive conspiracy existing was always slim to none. At best, "birther" stuff was a back burner issue - a curiosity. Claiming his investigators were finding "amazing" stuff and "couldn't believe what they were finding" and then not backing it up at all makes him look like an utter buffoon.
Now if Trump wants to be at all taken seriously politically he needs to do just what you said. Say, "hey, I want more information whenever I can get it, there is nothing wrong with asking", and pivot to actual, real issues that effect Americans lives - the economy. And he needs to do this with serious policy positions (not stupid stuff like claiming he is going to seize Iraq or Libyan oil). Also it would help him if he refrained from dropping F bombs and calling the Chinese mother****ers in his speeches. Personally, I don't think Trump can do it because I don't think Trump was ever a serious political candidate with serious political policy positions. Further, he is NOT even remotely conservative and therefore is going to have a difficult time getting any traction among traditional, conservative primary voters once the campaign season really gets going.