according to David S. Bernstein at the Boston Phoenix:
The effect [of the successful operation against Bin Laden and the release of the long form birth certificate] was to expose the birthers as the kids' table — you can't sit there and be taken seriously. But Republicans who don't sit with them will have real trouble.
For a long time now, Republicans could get away with claiming a seat at both tables. Obama has taken that option away now.
. . .
Obama, in just a few days' time, has made it necessary for Romney and other Republicans to choose — kids' table, or grown-ups'. Now that the divide has been made clear, it's likely to extend to other nonsense talk, from Sarah Palin's "Hells no" cry to not raise the debt ceiling, to calls for defunding Planned Parenthood over alleged racial eugenics. We'll see whether the GOP has any grown-ups left.
This is a hopeful analysis that makes me more optimistic that Obama is playing a long term game shift our political discourse toward reality, and thereby redefine the "Center" in a leftward direction. Let's hope the electorate still wants to vote for grown-ups.