The birther bit is easy to explain. Though the Obama staff didn’t help things much.

It is just like any political nugget. You have those who want to believe and will except any or even no explanation, and you have those who don’t want to believe and no explanation will be sufficient.

The rumor started and no evidence was immediately published giving the appearance of something wrong. Past that point nothing was going to matter anyway. Facts no longer matter.

Think of trying to convince rvg that pot is no a danger to the world. Who was interested in Bush’s military service record and what became of that?