Younger readers may not recall this, but there's an arcane phrase public figures once used when confronted with a rumor or supposition so ludicrous that it defied not only an attempt, but the effort required to make such an attempt, at correcting it: "I'm not going to dignify that with a response." That phrase went out of style back in about 1988, when Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis, accused of personally releasing convict Willie Horton from jail and then handing him a map of the Bay State's hottest spots for rape, made the purely rational assumption that voters would see the allegation as a clear and desperate attempt to play on racial fears through slander and innuendo and that he needn't bother to respond. Dukakis lost 40 states in that year's presidential election.

If more evidence were needed that no matter how absurd the accusation it must be denied-and more evidence was not needed, but it tells you a lot about the guy that even after having seen the Dukakis debacle close up, he still followed suit-John Kerry proved it in the election of 2004, when, as a decorated volunteer war hero facing a man whose record in the Alabama National Guard was deeply suspicious, he allowed smears about his service to go unanswered to the point where one of his greatest strengths became his greatest weakness.

Come we now to the birthers. I'm glad Robert Gibbs addressed this yesterday. I don't doubt he'll have to address it again. He is absolutely correct in saying that it won't make a difference, because those that can't be convinced won't be convinced. To once again reference the Stanley Fish essay we mentioned yesterday,

It isn't the legitimacy of Obama's birth certificate that's the problem for the birthers. The problem is again the legitimacy of a black man living in a big house, especially when it's the White House. Just as some in Durham and Cambridge couldn't believe that Gates belonged in the neighborhood, so does a vocal minority find it hard to believe that an African-American could possibly be the real president of the United States.

And that's exactly what this is about. Personally, I think Gibbs should come out one day and say, "You know what? You're right. Barack Obama was not born in the United States. In fact, he was not born on Earth at all. Barack Obama comes from a distant planet that was faced with destruction; moments before it exploded, his father Jor-El Obama, placed him in a rocket headed towards Earth in hopes that he might survive and help to build a better world. DEAL WITH IT." I mean, at least that would be kind of funny, right? Especially once the folks on the talk shows started complaining that Jor-El was actually white, and why is the Obama administration trying to take away all our white heroes, etc. Jesus, what a world.