TheBakersfieldCalifornian.com

President Obama might have called him a "carnival barker" this week on national television, but when he did it he was giving credence and publicity to said carnival barker, Donald Trump, who had been demanding that Obama release his birth certificate. Which he did.

Now I believe Obama was born in the United States, so the birth certificate itself isn't of interest to me. In fact, I don't think it was of interest to Trump either.

What IS interesting is that the leader of the free world, who said himself that day that he is just too busy for this silliness, took time out of his busy schedule (before leaving to go on the Oprah Winfrey Show and then to New York for some fundraisers that night) to respond to a reality TV show star. A guy who does mattress and pizza commercials! A man who is notorious for using others for his own purposes and publicity.

After two years of listening to the "birthers" (those who don't believe Obama was born in this country) call for proof of his citizenship, it was "The Donald" who brought the president to action.

Why? I have a theory...

While I don't think Republicans would ultimately pick Trump as their presidential candidate, he does have appeal. Not as a conservative (he's not). Not as a traditional politician (he's not). But as an unconventional scrapper who has nothing to lose and publicity to gain.

He's a celebrity. And if we've learned anything about celebrities who run for office, they can be more shameless than politicians. If a senator taps his foot under a bathroom stall at the airport in a "come hither" way, he's arrested, and ruined. If a celebrity does it, we chalk it up to Charlie Sheen! The first scandalously divorced president? An actor. The California governor elected even after the release of a Playboy video in which he dances with topless women in Rio who have their legs wrapped around his waist? An actor.

We elected a man whose claim to fame was being married to Cher. And when he tragically died, we elected his wife just because she was married to the guy who was married to Cher.

There's no scathing criticism by Obama that can be more hurtful than a tabloid rag, and Trump has been putting up with tabloids since Obama was a kid in Hawaii (the place of his birth...get over it people!!!).

Trump can be fearless. He shoots from the hip, not from a list of pre-written platitudes. He uses street talk rather than elite terms, he's quick with a comeback and he isn't afraid of offending.

And the thing that makes him dangerous to Obama? Trump has an enormous ego. One that rivals Obama's. And THAT'S why he got under the president's skin this week.

He might be a carnival barker, but he's a carnival barker that makes the president feel threatened.

I won't vote for Trump or Obama in 2012 so I have no dog in this race. But I do think that Obama's need to come to the podium himself, upstage tornados and budgets and royal wedding preparations of the day, to make a passive-aggressive shot over the bow to a guy who probably isn't seriously running in 2012 and whom the president himself dismisses as silly? Speaks volumes about how insecure our president is in his starring role on the biggest reality show in the world.

-- Inga Barks, who hosts a talk show on KMJ AM 580, is one of four community columnists whose work appears here every Saturday. These are the opinions of Barks, not necessarily The Californian. You can e-mail her at ibarks@bakersfield.com. Next week: Ric Llewellyn.