What to make of the Birthers?

Let me start by saying it is an absolute certainty that Barack Obama was born in Hawaii. Factcheck.org has examined his birth certificate, and the Hawaii Secretary of State and Registrar of Vital Statistics personally verified that the health department holds the certificate. Conclusively, birth announcements were published in both of Hawaii's daily newspapers back in 1961.

This controversy would merit a short chapter in Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds. A recent poll showed that 11% of Americans don't believe Obama was born in the US, and another 12% aren't sure. These people are overwhelmingly white, Southern, and Republican. Most individual Birthers have arrived at this belief through the confluence of several factors.

-They dislike Obama, and want to believe bad things about him.
-One of the things they most dislike about Obama is his Other-ness, the fact that he has a very different life story and skin color than previous presidents. Going on to claim that he isn't American at all fits well into a pre-existing belief. This is why some nutty claims (for example that Obama is a Muslim) gain traction, while others (that he is corrupt or a tax cheat) do not.
-They believe that mainstream sources of information, such as FactCheck or the Hawaii Secretary of State, are biased and can be ignored.
-News sources that share their ideological orientation (Hannity, Dobbs, right-wing radio) support their beliefs.

As with most Extraordinary Popular Delusions, those who come to delusion honestly (i.e. through cognitive biases) are exploited and manipulated by others for profit.

Some promoting the controversy are obviously hucksters looking for publicity. Orly Taitz has achieved the highest profile of this bunch. With her unidentifiable but clearly foreign accent, she can attack Obama's American-ness without seeming racist. She is, hilariously, an attorney, dentist, and real estate agent. She will probably be successful in using her role as Chief Birther to write a book and earn speaking fees at various wingnut conferences.

Meanwhile, there are several figures on the fringe of mainstream -- people like Lou Dobbs and Sean Hannity, who are using the controversy to attack Obama. They don't particularly care whether it's true, and they're careful to couch their critiques under cover of reporting. They don't personally take a stand. They just report on the "continuing controversy," which continues in large part because they themselves are covering it.

Other conservatives, particularly elected officials, are caught in the middle. They know that the birth controversy is nonsense, and don't want to lose credibility by embracing it. On the other hand, much of their base is completely convinced that Obama is not a citizen. This results in some really great video of members of Congress running from reporters and nearly getting tarred and feathered at a town hall meeting.

And don't forget those on the left, who bring up the Birther controversy to make opponents look like idiots. But is that really such a good idea? It's helpful in the sense that it communicates to the rest of the nation that Obama's opponents are a bunch of crazies. Since there is no clear leader of the Republican party, that perception can stick pretty well. On the other hand, it's not particularly useful to Obama or the Dems right now. They're trying to get health care reform passed, which has more to do with maintaining their own coalition and popularity than tearing down the Republicans. Come election time, it'll certainly be helpful to have embarrassing videos of Republicans, but for the next year or so the Birther issue will largely be a distraction from the Democrats' governing goals.