For two-plus years now, Democrat liberals have been deriding "birthers" as fools engaged in petty politics. Granted, it is easy to generate, circulate, and perpetuate a conspiracy theory. Consider, after all, the conspiracy theory that Bush was behind the 9-11 attacks. So demands for the Obama birth certificate have been met with derision up to this point.

Regardless of how unfounded the birth certificate controversy has been, the truth of the matter is that an employer is required by law to verify prospective employees' origin of birth. So requests to verify and validate Mr. Obama's origin of birth have not been completely out of line.

Yet, for two-plus years, the Obama administration played a bait-and-switch game. Instead of just submitting the certificate and putting any such controversy to rest, they posted some faux form. They responded to requests for verification with arrogant mockery. It was all a distraction from the really important matters of national issues. On and on they went.

Then, all of a sudden, the (alleged) official birth certificate is submitted for inspection. And in spite of all the pressing matters of national importance, President Obama takes time out of his busy schedule to hold a personal press conference about it instead of delegating it to his press secretary.

All of this motivates me to muse: In spite of their sometimes pitiful silliness, it is not "birthers" who have been petty throughout this ordeal. Birth certificate pettiness originated and was perpetuated by the Obama Administration. One would think that they would have more pressing matters to attend to than intentionally dragging out this wild goose chase. Yet, this is the sadly typical and petty character of this administration.