Via Tommy Christopher at Mediate, be prepared to see Barack Obama the happiest he’s been in public in a long while, perhaps since taking office. And why not? In one fell swoop, Obama gets to paint his opponents as nutcases, tweak the press for their sudden obsession over the circumstances of his birth while we move from one government-shutdown deadline to the next, and act like the grown-up in the room. Obama starts off by saying that he finally got some live network coverage the only way he knew how, and proceeds to scold everyone for the monumental waste of time and distraction this has always represented:

Hey, if you finally got to spring a political trap after waiting for more than two years for the opportunity, you’d be all smiles, too.

Truly, the only reason I can think that the White House acted now rather than next year when the announcement would have had more impact is what Obama says here — he doesn’t think his position on the budget has been adequately covered and he’s losing ground because of it. In that sense, Obama should be careful what he wishes for, because if yesterday’s Gallup poll is any indication, he should have been happier with the distraction.

Update: Commenter Cynthia Munford asks:

[D]o you really think that this trap or stunt has enough legs to change the subject of our burgeoning financial problems for long? I would think that every time someone fills (or attempts to) their gas tank, the birth certificate issue flies right out the window/wallet. So I have no problem with The Won enjoying this moment, I don’t think he is going to have very many reasons to smile in the future.

No, I don’t think it will do much, because I think most people didn’t care about this “issue” anyway. I think the White House thinks it will, or perhaps they took a look at the polling with the debt-limit debate upcoming and felt they needed the boost this might give them now rather than later. It won’t last long enough even if he does get a bump from it, however.