That's what Barack Obama told the nation over the weekend.

"I do not have time for this silliness."

The "silliness" he was talking about is the question of his own eligibility for the presidency.

Yet, there he was Saturday night at the White House Correspondents Association Dinner spending more time in a soliloquy about just that issue.

Which is it? Does he have time for it? Or doesn't he? Does he have time to prepare and deliver remarks about the controversy? Or doesn't he? Does he have time to obsess over it? Or doesn't he? Or is it a matter of time at all?

Perhaps what Obama really means is that he doesn't have time to be responsive to the continuing concerns about this pressing constitutional and public confidence issue. Perhaps what he means is that he doesn't enjoy being held accountable to the people and the rule of law. Perhaps what he means is that he sees this issue becoming a political liability for him. Perhaps what he means is that he doesn't enjoy being held to the same standards as other Americans.

He surely doesn't mean that he evaded his responsibility to the law and the will of the people for two-and-a-half years because of a lack of time.

Once Obama determined to release the document last week, it took Obama a matter of days to secure what he and his supporters claimed alternatively wasn't available, wasn't relevant, wasn't necessary, didn't exist or had already been released.

On top of that, the document was released last week in a form that makes forensics-style validation of it nearly impossible. But that didn't stop his supporters and a negligent media from proclaiming it the nail in the coffin of the eligibility debate they have failed to report since he became a candidate for the office of the presidency.

In any case, Obama has only himself to blame for the controversy. After promising to conduct the most open and transparent administration in American history, he soon made it clear that any documents about his life were off limits – including his travel records, adoption records, school records, college and university records, citizenship records, health records and so on.

Then he and his supporters resorted to the last refuge of scoundrels by accusing skeptical Americans of being "racist" for asking of him what his predecessors and his competitors for the office have routinely disclosed to the public.

Now what?

Is the case closed?

Has Obama provided the smoking-gun evidence needed to settle the issue of eligibility once and for all?

May 1, 2011