Sure, Jonah, gloss over the fact that nearly 50% of your party consists of birther nutters, and your party's best polling presidential candidate made this his signature issue. All this, yet you say Obama focuses on silly things. Give it a rest, there's no symmetry here. Only one party has lost its sanity.

The suggestion, by many people, that he simply end the matter by showing the long form certificate had started to cause polling problems. That's why he released it. His people loved the issue precisely as a distraction, but they exercised their option to put it out there because not doing that had started to work against them.

They probably regret having to do it, but if they waited until, say, next summer, then the stink of their refusal to simply clear the matter up would have wafted all the way into the election.

They give cynicism a bad name.

@BrunoM, lighten up. There's humor in truth, and that's what makes the trainwreck that is the Obama administration tolerable.

Why did Obama have a press conference on this at all? Why not just do the certificate release and let the WH spokesperson address the issue at the presser later today.

Jonah, your insights never fail to amaze me. Until now, I had never realized that previous Presidents had not appeared on popular television shows or attended fund raisers. I bet he sometimes goes to the bathroom and just sits there and reads the sports page or stares into space. What a slacker.

Bruno: Gee, I guess Jonah should emulate Obama's "grace". Wait--what grace? We have as president a man who is incompetent; proven on a daily basis. A man who is just plain nasty and "graceless" toward any person who disagrees with him. Get a grip. Obama is off to be on Oprah for heaven's sake. Talk about the "opiate of the masses" that is what Oprah is and Obama thinks that it is important to go on her show---meanwhile we go in debt another 4 to 6 Billion bucks today! Seems to me Jonah has shown a great deal of restraint in his criticism of the supercilious, buffoon who resides in the White House (that is when he isn't on vacation, fund raising, golfing, or jetting about in the 747 we taxpayers have to buy fuel for!)

I've always thought that there wasn't really any "there" there. However, I've also had a lingering curiosity as to why he didn't just release it years ago, when the issue first came up, and reportedly spent half a boatload of money to keep it from being released.
I think it lends credence to the theory that he found it politically helpful to continue the "Birther Nutters" thing.

"Because after happily cultivating this as a way to characterize his critics as racists and conspiracy theorists, he wanted to show his glib "bemusement" about it, having sufficiently exhausted its value."

MartinM hit the nail on the head.

Jonah, the truther v. birther comparison never holds water. Did a former Democratic VP nominee ever flirt with trutherism? Did Nancy Pelosi ever dance around it? Did 50% of Democrats ever believe it? I didn't think so. The Republican party establishment has out and out failed to contain its crazy wing, and now it pervades and poisons the entire party. Yet you sneer about Democrats being silly.