A short diary here, but with a point I'd wanted to make: I'd been looking through this diary on the seemingly bizarre Republican mocking of a politician who gives a speech using a teleprompter, and there was one thing that wasn't mentioned--the actual intelligent scheming reason behind the utter idiocy.
Obviously the repeated attacks on Obama as just some teleprompter reader don't have the slightest bit of reason behind them--we've watched him speak many times off-the-cuff and he knows his stuff, and yes of course it's ridiculous and hypocritical that these GOP politicians should be disparaging a man for using a tool that every single public figure uses no matter their public-speaking ability.
"Attack their strengths" is the reason behind it, though. Does anyone remember that as one of Karl Rove's most important scumball tactics? Obama gives amazing, uplifting speeches that connect with voters, so the GOP attacks him for his speech giving ability--it doesn't matter if the attack is absurd, so long as they can dismiss him. In the same vein, Obama has shown himself willing to listen to good ideas no matter the source, so naturally he's called a "liberal ideologue" over and over in conservative media.
Morals, ethics, arguments, reason-schmeason whatever. The only thing consistent about Republicans are their tactics.