0 political power to help conservatives. All that pursuing birtherism will bring us is a well deserved reputation for being conspiracy theorist kooks.
Is Obama a shady liar? Yes.
Is he hiding something? Yes.
Can we use that to remove him from office. No.
It's time to face facts. The American people aren't willing to go along with birtherism without solid proof. Gnash your teeth. Call it unfair. Pout. All irrelevant. If there's a hair of doubt, the vast majority of Americans will give Obama the benefit of it. Even the ones that don't like him. There's no appetite to remove a sitting President over a technicality that most people don't understand, and no court or opposing politician wants to touch.
We can convince ourselves on the internet that this is a slam dunk, but it's far from settled law. If the idea is to defeat Obama, then it's time to admit that birtherism is a dead end, and let it go. We can beat him on the issues, and we will. The man is self destructing in slow motion, and all birtherism does at this point is build sympathy for him.
I am tending to agree with your analysis, but I disagree with your characterizing people who work to be informed on this issue the way you have. The reason this issue was never settled is because the media never pursued it. Indeed, they did everything possible to cover it up and make it go away. Despite that, the drum beat continued until recently.
Had the Media been willing to pursue this, or had they been forced to pursue this, this could have done serious damage to him long ago.
Too much of what Americans are allowed to discuss is controlled by Liberal people who decide not to discuss things they don't like.