Let me begin by stating the obvious: If you are a birther, or harbor any doubts at all that the president was born in Hawaii, then you are an idiot. A partisan hack, perhaps; a racist, possibly; and a conspiracy theorist for sure. But mostly an idiot.

This is what news anchors can't tell you, under the philosophy that objectivity means accepting all opinions despite overwhelming facts and evidence to the contrary.

So despite having an official Certificate of Live Birth posted publicly on the Internet since 2008, despite having independent observers like FactCheck.org travel to physically see, handle and photograph the document, despite the Republican governor of Hawaii verifying she'd seen the long-form birth certificate on file, despite a matching birth announcement found in a Hawaii paper by a Hillary Clinton researcher, still the birther movement continued to grow.

By 2011 a majority of Republican primary voters thought Obama was not born in America, creating an opening for a mainstream figure like "sucessful businessman" and possible Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump to not just wink at the birthers, but dive head-first into their lunacy.

So while Trump is correct that Obama's releasing a long-form birth certificate Wednesday is a direct response to his mainstream birther campaign, it's going to be a Pyrrhic victory.

There will always be conspiracy theorists and crazies who believe we have a Kenyan in the White House. Do you think this guy is going to suddenly change his tune or accept documents as presented? Is World Net Daily going to shut down? Absolutely not. The Smoking Gun has already published a helpful guide of idiosyncracies in the new birth certificate to jump start birtherism 2.0, so I'll be looking for them to show up in chain letters from my great-uncle any day now.

But for the rest of the Republicans and Tea Partiers, it's now a lot harder to deny the president's legitimacy and be taken seriously. Let this be the end of the triangulating statements like "I believe he was born in Hawaii, but I understand why people have concerns," and "I take the president at his word" (as opposed to declaring it a fact).

Republicans can now throw in their lot with the birthers and be discredited by the vast, important swaths of people in the political middle.

Or they can stop pandering and move on.