Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus dismissed the media and Obama campaign flap over Mitt Romney’s joke about his birth certificate as a “ridiculous” example of where American politics has sunk to during an during an appearance on CNN’s State of the Union  with Candy Crowley.

“I think it’s a nothing,” Priebus said. “People like Mitt Romney, myself, from the time I became chairman … have said this is a non-starter and that Barack Obama was born in Hawaii."

The Obama people and the media twisted Romney’s words and missed his point, Priebus said.

“Look, we’re ahead in Michigan, and he’s a native Michigander; we’re doing well in these battleground states, and he’s saying ‘I’m from Michigan. I was born here,’” Priebus said. “Have we really gotten to that point where we really cannot have any levity at all in politics?

“We have gotten to a place in politics that is just ridiculous.”