we start with the birth of the birther movement. ben smith is senior political writer to politico and eugene robinson from "the washington post," an msnbc political analyst. ben smith, everybody is chatting here at "hardball" about your big report today about the birth of birtherism. i believe the key issue is do politicians sell it? do they try to get elected on it and believe it? real politicians. there is always going to be crazy conspiracy theories. the distinction is not where it came from, but who is using it to hurt the president? your thoughts. explain the birth of this thing. >> well, i think what a lot of people don't realize it was born in the spring of '08, as hillary clinton is collapsing, and as the previous smear, which is that he had been a muslim sort of running up against the fact he has a crazy christian pastor who is being attacked and hard to fit the things together. out of the muslim thing came this idea, first that he wasn't eligible to be president because his father wasn't a citizen and then when that kind of was