Koox!
The Born Ultimatum [1]

The birthers are getting restless, and Ambinder is concerned.

As well he should be.

One small quibble with one thing he writes, however. Ambinder:

Republicans have to be extra careful. If they give credence to the birthers, they're (not only advancing ignorance but also) betraying the narrowness of their base. If they dismiss this growing movement, they might drive birthers to find more extreme candidates, which will fragment a Republican political coalition.

But what's more important than how the GOP should finesse its lunatic fringe...which sometimes looks alarmingly like a lunatic base...is that there is a substantial and growing fringe in the GOP base that's crazy enough to take this birther claptrap seriously, demanding (yet more) proof of Obama's citizenship.

Rather than asking "how can we keep the extra-wingy nuts on board?", the GOP might want to consider asking itself "might the fact that a substantial part of our base is batshit crazy be some kind of indication that something about our approach and/or platform might be sub-optimal in some way?"

Just a thought.


[1] I just watched The Daily Show from...I dunno...a day or so ago...on tivo, and they made almost this joke. Though their version was "The Born Identity." Which is obviously the right joke, unlike "The Born Ultimatum." But I just want to make it clear that I didn't steal the joke. If I had, I would have stolen the good version.