The birth certificate from Hawaii's Department of Health confirms that Obama, who has already announced his intention to run for re-election in 2012, is indeed eligible.
"The president believed the distraction over his birth certificate wasn’t good for the country. It may have been good politics and good TV, but it was bad for the American people and distracting from the many challenges we face as a country," Dan Pfeiffer, the White House's communications director, wrote on the White House blog Wednesday morning. "Therefore, the president directed his counsel to review the legal authority for seeking access to the long form certificate and to request on that basis that the Hawaii State Department of Health make an exception to release a copy of his long form birth certificate."
At a press conference Wednesday, Obama said, "We do not have time for this kind of silliness. We've got better stuff to do. I've got better stuff to do."
The long-form version of Obama's birth certificate is below.