Zandar's Thought Of The Day

Old Broken Down GOP opinion on debates:  Debates are stupid and meaningless.  Voters only care about whether or not candidates are likeable enough to have a beer with. Dubya and Palin won all their debates just by agreeing to this outdated nerdy nonsense and showing up.  Real presidents don't have time for debates.

New GOP Hotness on debates:  Debates are the most important thing ever and Newt Gingrich will put that uppity empty suit affirmative action hire in his place because he is the smartest Republican alive, just ask Ross Douthat.

It’s easy to see why this kind of myth-making would infuriate Obama’s opponents. And so ever since the 2008 election, the right has embraced a sweeping counternarrative, in which the president’s eloquence is a myth and his brilliance a pure invention. Take away his campaign razzle-dazzle and his media cheering section, this argument goes, and what remains is a droning pedant, out of his depth and tongue-tied without a teleprompter.

This is where Gingrich comes in. Just as Kerry’s candidacy represented an attempt to effectively out-patriot George W. Bush (“You have a war president? We have a war hero!”), the former speaker has skillfully played to the Republican desire for a candidate who can finally outsmart and out-orate Obama. 

Ahh, but Douthat concludes.  The debate stuff really is meaningless...because President Obama really is nothing more than a pathetic affirmative action hire, so we don't need to prove it.

More important for the Republican Party’s purposes, it isn’t 2008 anymore, and conservatives don’t actually need to explode the fantasy of Obama’s eloquence and omnicompetence. The harsh reality of governing has already done that for them. Nobody awaits the president’s speeches with panting anticipation these days, or expects him to slay his opponents with the power of his intellect. Obamamania peaked with the inauguration, and it’s been ebbing ever since. 

See, he's dumb.  Just quote the unemployment rate for an hour and you win.  That's what a real President would do against President Black People Aren't That Smart After All, Huh?

So yes, the Republicans like Ross Douthat are indeed now trying to have it both ways:  debates are meaningless because President Obama has already lost on his record and he's pretty stupid anyway, so it doesn't matter in the end.

Of course, you could have seen that one coming a mile away.