Birther movement is an ugly distraction

We've all had our fun watching people stand up at town hall meetings and loudly assert that President Obama was born in Kenya. It was a giggle to see the anonymous online hordes argue that an obvious forgery - apparently done by a kindergartner, with crayon - is the president's real birth certificate. There's an undeniable majesty in the pretzel logic employed to argue that Obama's Hawaiian birth certificate, two newspaper announcements, and repeated statements by the state's Republican governor are all part of a 48-year-old conspiracy.

But the grand prank that is the "birther" movement needs to be wrapped before it overstays its welcome, before it sullies the president's credible opponents, before it makes the South into a laughingstock, and before it does real damage to the nation's conservative movement, where it finds its home on the farthest reaches of the furthest fringe.

For those who don't spend time watching the TV shouters or reading the more paranoid precincts of the Internet, here's the birther belief: Barack Obama wasn't born in America and therefore is ineligible to be president.

It's a completely ridiculous assertion, of course, contradicted by evidence, testimony and common sense. Ordinarily, it's the kind of conspiracy theory that wouldn't bear mentioning.

But a new robocall survey by Public Policy Polling shows that only 53 percent of all Virginians believe the president was born in the United States. Among Virginia Republicans, the number is 32 percent. A full 41 percent of Virginia Republicans believe Obama was born elsewhere.

According to a similar survey by DailyKos/Research2000, 77 percent of all Americans believe the president was born in America. In the South, though, that number is a mere 47 percent. Among Republicans nationwide, believers in the president's Hawaiian birth amount to just 42 percent.

That's a lot of numbers. But the inescapable conclusion is that about half of Southerners and Virginians believe something despite what the facts clearly indicate. That's either a testament to the reach and persuasiveness of the prankster-birthers and their followers, or to something much deeper, and perhaps much uglier in our psyche.

To his credit, the standard-bearer for Virginia Republicans will have none of it. "President Obama is a citizen; he is the president of the United States," Bob McDonnell said in an online exchange last week. If any sentence can be read any number of ways, a campaign official left no doubt that the candidate was rejecting the birther conspiracy in its entirety.

McDonnell's colleagues up and down the Republican landscape would do well to be similarly unequivocal.

The merry pranksters of talk radio, cable chatter and the Internet will say or do anything to attract an audience. They will assert things they don't believe to gin up ratings, excitement and anger. That is quite surely the source of the birther conspiracy, one that has been animated by political bitterness over November's election results, and an almost atavistic discomfort with Obama in the White House.

None of that really matters. Barack Obama, as surely as the sun will come up, is the president of the United States.

These remain tumultuous times, in the nation, in Virginia, and in Washington. The president has brought with him an array of ambitious initiatives that need careful consideration and thoughtful opposition.

It is no time for childish pranks, for silly distractions. For the nation's sake, let's hope this joke is finally over.