Slog tipper Marc was worried about this book, Where's the Birth Certificate?: The Case that Barack Obama is not Eligible to be President by Jerome Corsi, being #1 on Amazon.com right now. To Marc, I say: Be not afraid!

Corsi, as we all know, is the slimeball who wrote the book that pundits claimed sank John Kerry's presidential bid in 2004. (Of course, John Kerry sank John Kerry's presidential bid in 2004; what a horrible candidate that man was!). He also wrote the book that didn't damage Barack Obama's presidential bid in 2008, and now he's back with a birther screed. But just because a book is a bestseller doesn't mean that people are reading it.

For instance, here's Peter Dreier back in 2004:

Indeed, the New York Times currently lists Obama Nation as its #1 "best seller" even though the paper acknowledges that sales of the book have been influenced by "bulk orders." Does the paper have a responsibility to find out whether these included large purchases by the author or by right-wing organizations?

Conservative books climb bestseller lists because of these bulk orders. Corsi's other two books were bestsellers for the same scurrilous reasons. The organizations who buy these books in bulk give the books away free with tickets to conferences. They offer these books as promotions for conservative magazine subscriptions. And I imagine many, probably most, of these books go unread. It's an old trick that conservatives have employed for decades now, and I wonder if the reason this birther book isn't available in a Kindle format is because you can't bulk-buy an e-book as easily as you can a physical one. It's just smoke and mirrors and marketing bullshit, folks. Carry on.

UPDATE 4/22: Just heard from Slog tipper Matt in Denver who says a Kindle edition is now available. And where does this book stand on those charts? It's currently at number 364. That seems about right.