It Wasn't Birtherism That Won the Elections in Virginia, New Jersey and Massachusetts

Hot Air has an exchange between Andrew Breitbart, a strong conservative with a good grip on reality, and Joseph Farah, the Birther nut who runs WorldNetDaily and tried to hijack the Tea Party Convention in Nashville last night. It's worth reading. Bottom line - Farah thinks the whole Birther thing is a winning issue.

Is SO isn't a winning issue. It's how you turn a winning political movement into a bunch of marginalized crackpots.

Ed Morrissey weighs in with his own thoughts on the Birther thing which echo my own:

The wins in Virginia, New Jersey, and Massachusetts over the last three months did not come from people questioning Obama’s birthplace. They resulted from grassroots opposition to the Obama-Nancy Pelosi policy agenda. Scott Brown won the seat held by the Kennedys and their cronies for almost 60 years by pushing back hard against ObamaCare and the counterterrorism policies of the White House. If anything, the continued focus on Birtherism at these rallies undercuts the mainstream nature of the opposition to the Democratic agenda and allows the media to paint it as a paranoid mob obsessed with conspiracy theories. Not only is it not a winning issue, it will hang like an albatross around the necks of conservatives who tacitly or expressly link themselves to it.

The American public rejected the birth-certificate argument in November 2008. We now have much better and more rational arguments to make against Obama and his allies in Congress. Let’s stay focused on those issues, where we have much stronger footing with a disillusioned electorate.

Believe me, Obama and the Dems have handed us a whole truckload of solid issues that will resonate with millions of voters. The birth certificate thing is a distraction that will only drive people away.

Erick Erickson of RedState also visited the Tea Party gathering and had these thoughts on the Birther thing:

I was profoundly disappointed to hear Joseph Farah of World Net Daily hijack the convention and try to treat the birther issue as legitimate. The birther issue is not legitimate. There is no linger constitutional issue. There never was.

Yesterday, I spent a lot of time talking about the meaning of the tea party movement and voter angst. Once Farah opened his claptrap, every question was about the birther movement. Way to go.

And that goes to a larger issue with this particular convention. With few expections, among them Sarah Palin, the featured speakers were virtual unknowns or, like Farah, increasingly on the fringe.

I do not think Sarah Palin must disavow or repudiate Joseph Farah. That’s distracting nonsense largely put out there by people who don’t like Sarah Palin. I think Governor Palin’s actions will show she too believes this birther issue to be a nonsensical distraction that is not credible. She can do this without throwing well meaning, but confused activists under the bus.