Obama & Trump: Back to Back Press Conferences

In an apparent bow to the pressure mounting about his birth certificate, President Obama released a long-form certificate from Hawaii this morning and then held an impromptu press conference on the matter. 

But the problem for Obama this morning wasn't the issue at hand, it was the optics -- the President interrupted Donald Trump's Portsmouth New Hampshire press conference, allowing Donald Trump to appear to have parity with him. Even further, he acknowledged Trump as a compeditor, as he began with the joke, "Let me just comment that I can't get the networks to break in on all kinds of other discussions. I was just back there listening to Trump who was saying it's amazing that he's not going to be talking about national security. I would not have the networks breaking in if I was talking about that, Chuck, and you know it."

Ben Smith of Politico said that "the move suggests White House pollsters saw real danger to Obama here, and saw the distraction as hurting him more than Republicans. It's also a remarkable concession to the kind of freakshow politics that this White House disdains, but has found itself unable to ignore."

Much like the first Kennedy-Nixon debate elevated Kennedy to the level of the then-Vice President, the dueling press conferences elevated Trump, strengthening the perception that he is a real contender, as the split screen images from the networks suggest.

Furthermore, the timing of the White House's move allowed Trump to take responsibility for prompting its release. Even if this puts the whole "birther" issue to bed, Trump can tout this event as an accomplishment, as it appears that he put Obama on the defensive. While many think a Trump candidacy is a "gift," it may be at their own peril.