Mediaite.com / by Matt Schneider | 6:22 pm, December 27th, 2010

The debate over President Obama’s birth certificate is gaining some renewed interest. First Hawaii Governor Neil Abercrombie announced that he will try to publicly release the document, and now MSNBC host Chris Matthews is wondering aloud why we can’t just kill this “crappy story.”

Matthews is interested whether Abercrombie will actually be able to find it, but is still puzzled why Obama hasn’t tried to clear up the confusion earlier, telling his guests:

I don’t understand why the Governor doesn’t just say ’snap it up . . . send me a copy right now.’ And why doesn’t the President just say ’send me a copy right now.’ Why doesn’t Gibbs and Axelrod say ‘let’s just get this crappy story dead.’

Liberal columnist Clarence Page says the President is right for ignoring this “crap” and that there is little to benefit from attempting to legitimize the craziness of the birthers. Page even humorously suggests the likely outcome that would result if a document alleged to be the birth certificate is eventually produced, claiming “birthers are still not going to believe it, they’re going to say ‘well that Governor is part of the conspiracy too, because he’s a Democrat.’”