TRUMP 1, OBAMA 0: So I was at the gym when they finally caved and released the birth certificate – and on both the Fox and the CNN monitors I saw Donald Trump, who quickly started talking about . . . gasoline prices. See, he knows how to keep the pressure on. Other GOP candidates might want to take a lesson. Maybe they could talk about milk.

UPDATE: Trump: Now Release Your College Records!

ANOTHER UPDATE: The White House may think it’s sprung a trap, but I think they waited too long. By now — as the polls from earlier this week showing how many independents thought Obama wasn’t born here, and which probably prompted the release decision, indicate — the damage is done. Even if people change their minds on the issue, for many the residual suspicion will remain: The thought that regardless of where he was born, there’s something shady about him.

Plus, from the comments: “Media: admit it, Trump forced the issue. Now, don’t let the WH distract you w/the birth crt from what Bernanke says today. Stay focused.” It’s more about the gas prices and the milk. Media spin won’t change those.

MORE: But the question remains: Why did Obama, who has proudly vowed his administration would be the “most open and transparent in history,” wait so long?

Plus, reader Dave Converse emails: “Now that Obama has released his birth certificate, it’s clear why he waited: there was no immaculate conception!” That’s sure to disappoint some of his fans.

MORE STILL: Roger Simon: Why doesn’t the L.A. Times release the Khalidi tapes?

STILL MORE: Claim: Alterations show in Adobe Illustrator. How likely is that?

National Review Not buying the layers argument: “What’s plausible is that somewhere along the way — from the scanning device to the PDF-creation software, both of which can perform OCR (optical character recognition) — these partial/pseudo-text images were created and saved. What’s not plausible is that the government spent all this time manufacturing Obama’s birth certificate only to commit the laughably rookie mistake of exporting the layers from Photoshop, or whatever photo editing software they are meant to have used. It’s likely that whoever scanned the birth certificate in Hawaii forgot to turn off the OCR setting on the scanner. Let’s leave it at that.”

Plus, from the comments: “They’re not layers. Illustrator is simply able to interpret PDF image data and *present it to you* as layers.” That would make sense, but I don’t know anything about Illustrator.