Focus

In releasing his long form birth certificate, President Obama ended his remarks with this:

"We live in a serious time right now and we have the potential to deal with the issues that we confront in a way that will make our kids and our grandkids and our great grandkids proud. And I have every confidence that America in the 21st century is going to be able to come out on top just like we always have. But we’re going to have to get serious to do it.

I know that there’s going to be a segment of people for which, no matter what we put out, this issue will not be put to rest. But I’m speaking to the vast majority of the American people, as well as to the press. We do not have time for this kind of silliness. We’ve got better stuff to do. I’ve got better stuff to do. We’ve got big problems to solve. And I’m confident we can solve them, but we’re going to have to focus on them -- not on this."

Earlier in his remarks, he referenced the House budget and his speech on his budget priorities, and the urgency of coming to agreements.  But the news coverage, he said, was primarily about the birther issue.  This is why he decided to confront it.

But the President deserves more credit for that speech (detailed beginning here) and for its influence.  The current problems GOPers are having defending the Ryan budget are on two issues that President Obama highlighted in his speech: more tax cuts for the rich and--as he was the first to say--"ending Medicare as we know it."

These are the issues GOPer congresspeople are hearing about in their town halls back in their districts.  In fact, the news kept playing a clip of a woman who was essentially reciting lines from this speech and from the President's own town hall meetings when she said it is easy to balance the budget on the backs of the poor, the helpless and the young who have no lobbyists in Washington.