The entire first block of Anderson Cooper‘s program last night was devoted to keeping Rick Perry “honest” on his comments, or more accurately non-comments, about President Obama’s birth certificate. The previous night, his 10pm competitor Greta Van Susteren interviewed Donald Trump on his current view of Obama’s birth certificate. Trump (somewhat disingenuously) suggested that they “shouldn’t be talking about it” and even mocked her for posing it as the first question (he then proceeded into la la land with comments like “I am not a fan” and “not a believer” in the validity of it). In fact, in the two weeks before Rick Perry’s interview in Parade Magazine came out, the fake controversy surrounding Obama’s birth certificate earned barely a mention on cable news. According to the television transcript database TV Eyes, the terms “birther” and “birth certificate” was only mentioned 8 times across all of cable news. But since Friday, the terms “birther” and birth certificate were referenced 180 times; Fox News mentioned both 29 times, CNN 48, and MSNBC led with 103 mentions.

After resurrecting the long-dormant “Birther” conspiracy about President Obama’s birth certificate in an interview with Parade Magazine, Texas Gov. Rick Perry doubled and tripled-down on the issue this week. Now, though, The St. Petersburg Times is reporting that Perry now says he has “no doubt” that President Obama was born in the United States, and that he was “kidding around” when he raised the issue several times this week. Has his flirtation with the Birthers, and Donald Trump, rendered his candidacy a joke?

The biggest problem with yesterday’s revelation that Texas Gov. Rick Perry has reopened the President’s birth certificate as a campaign issue was the fact that there was no audio or video of Perry’s interview with Parade Magazine. Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough remedied that situation, somewhat, this morning, when he drafted Willie Geist and Mark Halperin into a dramatic reenactment of the beleaguered former frontrunner’s absurd interview, in which he expresses doubt about the President’s birthplace.

Just when you thought it was safe to take Orly Taitz off of your producer’s speed-dial, Texas Gov. and struggling Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry throws a “Birther” Hail Orly in a Parade Magazine interview. Months after President Obama crushed then-GOP frontrunner Donald Trump by producing his long-form birth certificate and Osama bin Laden‘s long-form corpse, Perry told Parade that he had no idea if the document was real, and that he hopes to secure The Donald’s endorsement.

Donald Trump wasn’t enough for you, President Obama‘s re-election campaign rubbed some extra-coarse salt in the wound of another prominent Birther Wednesday morning. Timed to coincide with the release of “smear merchant” Jerome Corsi‘s new book, inconveniently titled “Where’s the Birth Certificate?”, the Obama campaign is offering donors (of $15 or more) the chance to own a “Made in the USA” mug featuring a copy of the President’s now-famous long form birth certificate.

But it would now appear that Trump’s meteoric rise to the tops of these polls and the media frenzy that came along with it may end up being footnotes in his biography (Too Trump To Trump: A Portrait Of Donald Trump, with a forward by Donald Trump. Illustrations by Trump, Donald). Today, Public Policy Polling revealed that his popularity has dropped both quickly and dramatically.

Just when you thought every angle in the “Birther” controversy surrounding Barack Obama’s birth place (and legitimacy as president) had been all too thoroughly scrutinized there comes this. During a live interview with reality TV show host Donald Trump, CNN’s Don Lemon suggested that it may not have even mattered where Obama was born “since what exactly natural-born is has never been litigated.”

In the aftermath of the Birther movement (the afterbirth, as everyone is cleverly calling it), out of the wreckage of Orly Taitz‘s long fifteen minutes, one undeniable truth has emerged: if you really need to see something that is completely meaningless, the revelation of which would be an assault on the values upon which this country is built, Donald Trump is your man. In a few short weeks, The Donald accomplished what thousands of conspiracy theorists, and dozens of court cases, could not, and what the accumulated decency of the American people had so far managed to prevent.

Rachel Maddow walked something of a fine line on her show tonight, balancing covering birtherism (“Reporting on spending press time covering ‘birtherism’ itself, I think is a defensible thing.”) and lending even more coverage and attention to Donald Trump and the headline (and ratings?)-grabbing birther movement. Maddow set out to figure out why (non-Fox News) journalists would devote time to covering the whereabouts of Barack Obama‘s birth certificate

In what could only be described as a bizzarro victory lap, Birther Queen Orly Taitz (who gave this site the proud, somewhat badass moniker “Insane Obama Thugs”) spent her 14th minute on The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell. O’Donnell was in no mood to let Taitz filibuster, however, and after a few minutes of attempting to force her to stay on topic, he ended the interview.

Various commentators (myself included) have consistently called out the Birther movement, and other attacks on President Obama‘s background, as racial dogwhistles, cynical exploitations of the racial mistrust of others. MSNBC’s Ed Schultz took it a step further Tuesday night, flat-out calling current Birther superstar Donald Trump a racist.

The debate over whether it is legitimate to question President Obama about his birth certificate and his academic records spilled over into Hardball today as Chris Matthews and Pat Buchanan hurled humorous insults at one another during a heated debate. The MSNBC colleagues clearly enjoyed the back and forth as neither seemed to shy away from revealing their true opinion about Obama’s academic credentials.

Well there it is. The most respected newscaster at the most watched and dominant cable news network has weighed in on the controversy surrounding Barack Obama‘s citizenship (and legitimacy as president of the United States) and has found for the president. “Fox News can confirm the president of the United States is a citizen of the United States,” said Fox News Shep Smith, adding for dramatic effect, “Period.” Next!

Donald Trump may have only landed on the 2012 presidential radar about two months ago (much to everyone’s chagrin), but in those two months he has done what no birther had yet attempted: he has found evidence that President Barack Obama‘s birth certificate doesn’t exist. That’s his latest headline-grabbing claim, anyway, in an extensive conversation aired tonight on CNN with Anderson Cooper. Needless to say, the latter is somewhat skeptical.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg appeared on Fox News Sunday and host Chris Wallace tried to get his opinion on whether he was still a “big fan” of Donald Trump. Bloomberg wiggled free from answering whether he likes the idea of Trump as a presidential candidate, but did stress that he thinks the Birther strategy is a losing one.

MSNBC Live host Cenk Uygur (can we get his show a name, please?) expended nearly half of Tuesday’s show on the subject of wildcard GOP hopeful Donald Trump, which is somewhat in line with the attention the rest of the media has been giving Trump. But just when you’re ready to throw up your hands and exclaim “Enough,” Trump justifies the coverage by doing something impossible to ignore.

In a Friday appearance on CNN’s John King USA, Birther queen Orly Taitz rolled over the eponymous host, and beleaguered guest Cornell Belcher, like that boulder in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Taitz emptied clip after clip of false and unsubstantiated claims at a helpless John King, but just when all seemed lost, King  fought back with his own daisy-cutter of crazy, suggesting that President Obama has been rebutting Birthers in code.

The recent emergence of Donald Trump as a possible presidential candidate and ringmaster of the Magical Birth Certificate Mystery Tour® has thrust the Birther movement into the national spotlight once again. Beyond Trump, though, there’s a teeming Birther subculture with its own cast of characters, including Lucas Daniel Smith, whose nude painting of Orly Taitz just sold for $350 on eBay.

Bill O’Reilly opened his show tonight eager to debunk many myths about President Obama. One by one, O’Reilly tackled various allegations about Obama’s past in an effort to eliminate all of these issues once and for all. While O’Reilly confirmed that some claims are actually true, Donald Trump certainly will not be happy with at least one O’Reilly conclusion.

In an interview set to air tonight on CNN, Maya Soetoro-Ng, the president’s sister, says it’s “a shame” the way Donald Trump is fanning the flames of birtherism with constant questions about the president’s place of birth. “He was born in Hawaii” she tells CNN’s Piers Morgan.

Soetoro says with far more pressing issues facing the country, it’s “time for people to put (birtherism) to bed, put it to rest completely.”

Ever wondered where Ann Coulter comes down on the controversy surrounding Barack Obama’s birth certificate? Well the following clip from tonight’s episode of Hannity will not only reveal to you that she thinks that Donald Trump‘s recent “birther” campaign seems somewhat insane, but that the entire birth certificate was ginned up by the Hillary Clinton campaign and is promoted by the liberal media as a means to delegitimize any criticism of what she thinks is a terrible presidency. Surprise!?

In a sure sign that Donald Trump‘s tireless PR efforts on behalf of the Birther movement are working, Autism Speaks co-founder (and former NBC head) Bob Wright came to his interview about Autism Awareness Month prepared to prove where he was born. Following his and wife Suzanne’s introduction, Wright volunteered his birth certificate, eliciting a [...]

Although everyone seems to be having a ball with Donald Trump’s Magical Birth Certificate Mystery Tour®, the sheer volume of Birther mythology makes it tough for interviewers to hit every clay Birther pigeon Trump tosses into the air. To be fair, reporting on the both certificate issue always seems to be missing one or two pieces, like a yard sale Monopoly set. Hopefully, this handy guide will remedy that situation, and help The Donald’s next Birther interview go straight to truth-jail. Do not pass “Go,” do not collect the nomination.

On Sunday’s State of the Union, CNN’s Candy Crowley became the latest interviewer to host Donald Trump‘s Magical Birth Certificate Mystery Tour®, and made an admirable attempt to get Trump to face facts. Over the course of a 10-minute interview that saw Trump swatting away at the truth like Birther King Kong, perhaps the funniest moment was Trump’s assertion that he doesn’t “like to talk about this issue too much.”

Sarah Palin was interviewed live today on Fox News’ Justice with Judge Jeanine, and was asked to weigh in on the rather sudden addition of Donald Trump‘s voice to the “Birther movement“, as well as the money “The Donald” is devoting to researching the existence of the president’s birth certificate. Palin’s answer? “More power to him!”