WASHINGTON — The White House this morning released President Obama’s long-form birth certificate, an extraordinary step in reaction to renewed questions from critics about whether he was born in Hawaii.

The document was also posted to the White House’s website. President Obama spoke on the subject this morning.

He said the nation does not have time for this “kind of silliness,” and needs to focus on real problems

Amid questions during Obama’s 2008 run for the White House, his campaign released a Certificate of Live birth to verify he was a native-born citizen, a Constitutional requirement of the office.

So-called “birther” critics called the document insufficient, however, and conspiracy theories about the president’s birth have continued.

Administration officials say they felt compelled to release additional documentation because the continued “distraction” was harmful for the country.

“It may have been good politics and good TV, but it was bad for the American people and distracting from the many challenges we face as a country,” White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer wrote on the White House’s blog.

To receive the long-form document, the president personally sent a request to the Hawaii Department of Health. White House counsel Bob Bauer traveled to the state to retrieve it.

The state of Hawaii has faced a regular barrage of requests for information about Obama’s birth, but privacy rules barred it from releasing the full birth certificate. The White House said it granted this exception “in part because of the tremendous volume of requests they had been getting.”