That joke isn’t funny any more
By 
As he explores the prospects for turning all of America into his own personal reality TV show, the Donald has gone full birther.
The GOP establishment now has a real problem. Having engaged in ever-increasing levels of flirtation with the lunatic fringe, a.k.a., “the base,” it has awoken to find itself in bed with the ideological equivalent of Alex Forrest — and she will not be ignored.
To borrow Thomas Frank’s terminology, a few weeks ago the Mods at the Weekly Standard, George Will etc., started trying to put the kibosh on attempts by the Cons to go all in on the Crazy. Yet the Bill Ayers nonsense Scott linked below — which has since been noted approvingly by the ever-moderate and independent voices in our midst (or possibly in our heads) — makes one suspect a good part of the body politic has gone literally insane.
Update: Adam Serwer provides a useful lexicon to describe the many flavors of birtherism.