This time, the body politic has lost its head. Really. There can be no other explanation for the group outrage directed at anyone who dares to wonder why it is that Barack Hussein Obama refuses to release his long-form, orginal birth certificate from whatever Hawaiian vault it is in to settle the "natural born" controversry once and for all. And there can be no other explanation for why it is that no one in the media has ever seen fit to ask him why he hasn't done so. If he has nothing to hide, why hide it? Of course, if he does have something to hide, he may have put over a giant fraud on the American people.

Will we ever know the truth? Probably not unless the media transform themselves from Protector of the Throne to good, old-fashioned fact-gatherers. I'm not holding my breath. Indeed, at this rate, what future historians may one day look back on as the strangest aspect to this extremely weird episode is the reflexively protective crouch the media and political elites have assumed to better position themselves to squash any questions, squash any questioners, about what might be hidden in the vault.

There seem to be two basic motives. One, from the Left, is pure protection. The strategy here is to tar anyone with questions as "Birthers"--fruitcakes and weirdos, dontcha know. The Right, rather than disputing the Left's characterization of the skeptics, rather than acknowleging there is something fishy about a man with nothing to hide hiding so very much, accepts the Left's characterization without question. Not surprisingly, the Right then deems the issue a political liabililty -- all on the Left's terms.

Perhaps the Right is hopeless (although I have to hand it to the few GOP Representatives and Senators who are at least mumbingly hanging in with the issue.) Enquiring minds should pressure Obama to end the controversy as only he can -- release his long-form original birth certificate.