The real Rubio problem

The biggest problem with Rubio's gaffe was not the fact that he repeated his line so robotically. The biggest problem is that it was meaningless and stupid the first time.

"Let's dispel once and for all with this fiction that Barack Obama doesn't know what he's doing," Rubio said (repeatedly). "He knows exactly what he's doing. Barack Obama is undertaking an effort to change this country, to make America more like the rest of the world."

Care to favor us with a few telling examples, Marco? Evidence? Anecdotes? Anything to help prove the point?

Nothing. That's why he kept repeating himself: He has nothing.

Rubio is talking to Republicans, who have transcended the need for evidence. They love conspiracy theories. They love the idea of American exceptionalism. They love the theory that there is a conspiracy to undermine American exceptionalism. Evidence? They don't need no stinkin' evidence. Asking for evidence is bad taste.

Translated out of robot-ese, Rubio's real complaint is that Obama's brand of neoconservatism is insufficiently thuggish. This president's great sin was his refusal to go to war against Syria in 2013. In Rubio's eyes, America is the one country allowed to make war without casus belli -- the one country allowed to impose its will without regard for world opinion. Any president who gives a thought to decency or diplomacy must be a supervillain -- an evil schemer intent on making America small.

Vox says that Rubio wanted to drive home Obama's nefarious nature as part of a more-conspiratorial-than-thou game of one-upsmanship with Trump:

In an attempt to prove Obama's failure as president is not because of a lack of experience, but because of a difference in ideology, Rubio created a rift in the typical Obama-is-an-idiot GOP rhetoric.

Trump, who is big on the "Obama is incompetent" bandwagon, responded to Rubio's point at the debate:

"First of all, Marco said earlier on that President Obama knows exactly what he's doing, like we have this president that really knows -- I disagree, respectfully, with Marco," Trump said. "I think we have a president who, as a president, is totally incompetent and he doesn't know what he's doing. I think he has no idea what he's doing. And our country is going to hell."

This line of attack is hilarious. Consider the source: Trump is a guy who doesn't know what the Nuclear Triad is, who didn't know that Iran's frozen funds were Iranian to begin with, and who thinks that Mexico will pay for a border wall. I doubt that Donald Trump could pass the final exam of a high school civics course.

Behold Trump! And behold Rubio! On one hand, you have a boob who calls Obama a boob, apparently on the theory that it takes one to know one. On the other hand, you have an ambulatory piece of poorly-written AI programmed to shout "Obama is Blofeld! Obama is Blofeld! Obama is Blofeld!", because repetition = truth.