Get it? From now on, ANY O-related slander offered up by Bachmann, Palin, Trump, Beck, etc....

[Bicoastal]

...will have independents and moderates saying "Yeah...but weren't you the guys insisting that Obama didn't have a birth certificate?" What's more, the media will have to bring this up any time a new wacky conspiracy resurfaces--thanks to Obama, it's now part of the narrative. Will anyone trust the boy who cried "Birther" next year?

So Obama wasn't TRYING to make crazy conservatives happy. He wasn't trying to make US happy. This was for the hugely important group of people who are still undecided about their politics now, but who will vote in 2012.

And the message: I'm an adult in a world full of children.

Clever...

[DanTex]

1. Good line: The boy who cried "birther"

Let's try and spread that.

[monmouth]

2. When will Uncle Pat Buchanan apologize to his President? I cannot

wait for his reaction...Bwahahaha, what am I nutz?

[eleny]

3. Right. Obviously, there was never any need to release today's certificate

No new pertinent information to the president's eligibility was revealed.

Also, the birthers didn't vote for him nor will they next year. So this was a move to put daylight between the rational and the irrational.

Too bad there was a need.

[immoderate]

4. Best analysis. No minds will change.

Deniers will have more to deny.

--imm

[csziggy]

5. The timing is relevant, too - the royal wedding will overshadow this

So it will not be a mainstream media lead story for very long but the information is now out there. From now as you say, any slander can be countered with facts that have been supported by documentation that is irrefutable.

Of course, the birthers have brought up Obama's school records but now Obama can start pushing back, just as you say, "I released the original of my birth certificate, so now you change what you want?"