Commenting on Sarah Palin’s silly statement that questions concerning the contents of Barack Obama’s birth certificate are fair game, Andrew Sullivan excitedly notes that he has yet another excuse–as though another excuse were needed–to ride his favorite hobbyhorse:

The news here is that, to her credit, Palin says that all inquiries into a candidate’s veracity, record, associations, and medical history are legitimate forms of inquiry. She therefore backs this blog’s near-solitary attempt to get her to provide evidence – after very serious questions of fact emerged – that she was indeed the biological mother of Trig. To all those Palinites and McCainiacs and right and left bloggers who decried this question as lunatic, Palin has now said she differs. They were more Palinite than Palin.

(Emphasis mine.) Bull$#*&. And Sullivan knows that this is bull$#*&. People who think that obsessions with lunatic conspiracy theories are pathetic, mockable, appalling to watch, and reflect poorly on the very inferior intellects of the obsessed are not “more Palinite than Palin.” Rather, they are significantly less Palinite than Palin has revealed herself to be, given her apparent interest in Barack Obama’s birth certificate. And they are certainly less Sullivanesque than Sullivan.

Put another way, people who think that obsessions with lunatic conspiracy theories are pathetic, mockable, appalling to watch, and reflect poorly on the very inferior intellects of the obsessed, are sane. Understandably, being sane is cool. It’s fine with me that Sarah Palin and Andrew Sullivan don’t want to be part of the cool crowd; I certainly don’t want to hang out with them. They can start their own clique–after all, they are quite alike, and deserve one another.