Condescension
Newt says he'll do Lincoln-Douglas-style debates on health care with Obama and the President can use a teleprompter. Newt and his superior intellect will be just fine without one.
Romney says the President doesn't have a clue and is in so far over his head on the economy. He can't wait to debate him, either.
Those smarty-pants GOP brainiacs are committing an elementary blunder: Setting impossible-to-meet expectations for themselves in a debate with Obama while kindly placing the bar so low that he can leap over it backwards with his eyes closed.
Dumb.
There's another thing happening here, of course: Condescension, which is always unattractive (in this case even more so as it feeds into unreasoning hatred) and does nothing but bleed votes away to the other guy, particularly when it's shown to be completely unwarranted after Obama wins each-and-every debate.
They think Obama is as hapless as we knew George W. (the GOP's missing person) to be.
It's a mistake all right, and it's another reason why I like our chances.