Can the birthers be stopped? Mr. Serwer describes an anti-birther backlash brewing amongst Republican elites, with the likes of **Karl Rove** telling their brethren to cool it on the Kenyan stuff. Rove even argues that birtherism is a trap set intentionally by the White House (a very clever argument, that). But the question is, can the Republican establishment stop the birthers from talking about birtherism? After all, the anti-birther backlash is following on the heels of an anti-Palin backlash among Republican elites, which seems to have helped push Sarah Palin, if not to the margin, then certainly away from the perch atop the conservative world she briefly occupied. But whether or not they can get people to stop talking about Barack Obama's birth certificate, the establishment's power is seriously limited. The fact is that birtherism is now firmly entrenched within the party ranks -- one recent poll found that only 38 percent of GOP primary voters said they'd be willing to vote for a primary candidate who rejected the idea that Obama is not an American. One thing that will determine how extreme the GOP nomination fight gets is how long the extreme candidates stay around. And there's really nothing to keep, say, Michele Bachmann from keeping the party's official nutbird candidacy going all the way to the convention. After all, the reason candidates generally drop out isn't because they have to, but because they run out of money and decide they just aren't going to win. But if you want to keep going, and if you've got people willing to fund your travel expenses (which Bachmann almost certainly will), then why not just keep it alive? That way you can keep getting on the news and remain an important figure. And I'll bet that if all the candidates drop out except for the eventual nominee (say, Mitt Romney or Tim Pawlenty) and Bachmann, she'll have people from around the country just begging her to stay in the race, and keep holding that Kenyan America-hating socialist's feet to the fire. And there won't be anything the establishment can do about it, no matter how crazy it makes their party look to independent voters.
