The Unbelievable Lameness Of The GOP’s Favorite Joke

Andrew Sullivan —  Feb 16 2012 @ 9:50am

Jill Lawrence is amazed that "the mockery of Obama as incapable of expressing a thought without a cue card won't die": 

The Republican nominee, whoever he is, will have to rely on a teleprompter, and at least one candidate — Mitt Romney — already uses one regularly. … Romney has used a teleprompter for at least three caucus and primary-night speeches. The teleprompter jokes …  suggest a GOP mindset that could be counterproductive. It's reflected in Romney's constant allusions to Obama as "in over his head" and Sarah Palin's sarcastic implication that he is an "idiot." Do Republicans want to lull themselves into thinking Obama is an incompetent who can't speak coherently or win a debate without a teleprompter? 

Lull themselves? A core, ugly minority of the GOP base assumes that Obama is an affirmative action candidate who didn't write his own book, and is too black to be smart. The joke, I fear, relies in part on racism. So does the absurd condescension from someone like Palin of all people! In the end, of course, the joke is on the bigots. What does it say that a man they think is this dumb is beating them in the polls? Weigel, meanwhile, gleefully photographed the presence of teleprompters at CPAC.