Sarah fumbles joining/quitting the Orly Birther play group

Orly Birther, former Southern Baptist Convention Second Vice President Wiley Drake and others marched right off the deep end with the crusade to prove President Obama can't produce a valid U.S. birth certificate.

While striving to ring the right-wing bells on behalf of her already-on-sale book "Going Rogue," Sarah Palin was asked by radio talk show host Rusty Humphries if she would "make the birth certificate an issue" if she ran for president. Palin responded by joining the Birthers:

I think the public, rightfully, is still making it an issue. I don’t have a problem with that. I don’t know if I would have to bother to make it an issue ’cause I think there are enough members of the electorate who still want answers.

Palin and Humphries elaborate together on her just-expressed belief that the Birthers are owed an answer. She said, for example:

I think it's a fair question, just like I think past associations, past voting records, all of that is fair game.

Ever the social media maven, she used a Facebook Note entitled "Stupid Conspiracy Theories", to withdraw from Birther's play group. Struggling not to offend the Birthers on her way out, Palin said:

Voters have every right to ask candidates for information if they so choose. I’ve pointed out that it was seemingly fair game during the 2008 election for many on the left to badger my doctor and lawyer for proof that Trig is in fact my child. Conspiracy-minded reporters and voters had a right to ask ... which they have repeatedly. But "at no point -- not during the campaign, and not during recent interviews -- have I asked the president to produce his birth certificate or suggested that he was not born in the United States.

Palinologists may already be digging through archives of twitter reaction to Palin's Birther hucklebuck.

It's clear that Pat Buchanan defended her -- not necessarily a good thing if you consider whom else he has defended.

Most importantly, she raised anew formerly quieted questions about herself. Andrew Sullivan observes that "Palin has never produced Trig's birth certificate or a single piece of objective medical evidence that proves he is indeed her biological son."

Sarah clearly needs a little help with her interview and row-back skills. Perhaps Southern Baptist Convention ethics chief Richard Land, who urged her selection as John McCain's running mate and hosts a radio show, will volunteer to begin Sarah's reeducation with instruction in the art of unapology.

[H/T: Andrew Sullivan]