Why are people who talk about Fast & Furious not considered conspiracy theorists?

Because there is a factual basis for the inquiry of the program that the DOJ admitted. There is also a factual basis that the DOJ is not telling the truth about who had knowledge of the program and when because of the sworn facts on the wire tap applications and finally if this wasn't a cover up why the assertion of executive privilege?

The alleged eligibility issues have somewhat been rebutted although there is an effort to expose a social security number inconsistency. The big difference between the two situations is that the majority of the non-eligibility proponents are not in the political mainstream and have been classified by the liberal press and liberal politicians as quacks. A politician who's star is rising doesn't want to be classified a quack and consequently will allow the non-politicos to do the dirty work until something concrete and certain is exposed...then the piling on will begin. I also believe that republicans understand that if something legitimate is uncovered the Senate is where an impeachment trial is conducted and they don't have the votes. Bringing an action in the federal courts would likely be well into a second term, if he is re-elected, and the shouts of political witch hunt will resound throughout the land and hurt the republican party as it did during the Clinton Impeachment. If he is defeated the immediate issue is resolved.

The F&F investigation is being conducted by a duly elected body with the constitutional duty of executive oversight. Although they try. it is hard for the dems to paint that as a bunch of quacks.

Two completely different circumstances.

@ Bruce:Only native-born U.S. citizens (or those born abroad, but only to parents who were both citizens of the U.S.) may be president of the United States,

Because it is admitted by the government to be true. If you had said that the US deliberately sells guns to Mexican cartels without any proof, you would be just a conspiracy theorist. The same thing if you said President Reagan sold guns to the Iranians in exchange for holding and letting the embassy hostages go on the day of his inauguration.

These are examples of the 1% of cases where the conspiracy theorists are right. It is why, despite all the cases where the evidence suggests the conspiracy theorists are just crazy, you've got to believe that there is a slight chance that there really was a secret conspiracy and the government has just covered up.

But the Birthers are still stupid, because even if Obama was born in Kenya or Indonesia, he would still be eligible to be President because his mother was indisputably a US citizen.

F&F is not a conspiracy because it is ONLY covered on Fox News.

Birthers are a conspiracy because they don't recognize the documents that exist proving Obama was born in Hawaii. Thus if documentary evidence proves you wrong, then "conspiracy" is your only retort available.

They aren't conspiracy theorists because they love movies with Vin Diesel, Paul Walker and, Michelle Rodriguez, and the last I checked that wasn't un-American.