BULLETIN:  AT 9:17 A.M. ET:  The White House has just released President Obama's "long-form" birth certificate.  The release came as a total surprise, after years of stonewalling.  You can see the certificate here:

I am not a legal expert on these things, so I will leave it to others to examine the document, and determine its authenticity, and whether it passes muster.

In reading the document, one wonders why Obama spent more than a million dollars to prevent its release.  It doesn't tell us anything that we didn't already know.  True, the middle name "Hussein" is prominent, right in the middle of the form, and maybe Obama worried that it would emphasize his heritage.  And his mother's age is listed as 18.  Maybe he was sensitive over that, for some reason.  The whole thing is baffling.

The certificate was certified as legitimate on April 25th, just two days ago, which means the White House has been aware that it was requested.

By the way, didn't the Democratic governor of Hawaii recently say that he couldn't find the certificate?  It has apparently been found.

Fox News is being cautious in its report of the release, its bulletin saying the White House has released "what it says" is the president's certificate.

Mr. Obama is expected to discuss the release later today.

Obviously, we'll stay with this.  You may be certain that Donald Trump will be asked for his reaction.  This certificate will be gone over line by line, for any indication of deception.  And, of course, we want to know whether this is the entire document, or if there's anything more to the "long form" that we should know about.

Stand by.

April 27, 2011