GOP contenders play King of the Hill

The respect President Obama has been getting from the other side of the aisle lately is enough to make you check the calendar to see if we were still on Valentine’s Day. Nope. That was two weeks ago.

Apparently so too is all the big talk about how Obama's re-election would deflate like a balloon in a pin warehouse, replaced with seemingly coordinated heartfelt confessions from Republican camps. 
From former Gov. Mike Huckabee (R-Ark.) to Gov. Haley Barbour (R-Miss.) to Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ), potential 2012 opponents have been offering Obama praise on, of all things, his political prowess.

Even hardcore partisan like Karl Rove had to acknowledge the president’s favorability.

On Meet the Press last Sunday, Barbour said, “The president is one of the greatest politicians in the history of the United States.”

Huckabee recently conceded that, “The people that are sitting around saying, ‘He [Obama]’s definitely going to be a one-term president. It’s going to be easy to take him out,’ they’re obviously political illiterates – political idiots, let me be blunt.”

And Christie, the non-presidential candidate some hope to draft for the gig, analyzed it in his typical style, “[Obama] proved he could win once, so that’s one more time than anybody else who has run.”

Photo credit: Manuel Balce Ceneta, AP

Out:    Obama-as-Jimmy-Carter talk.
In:       Obama-would-be-tough-to-beat speak.

Read:  Send money, Ma!

Meanwhile, Obama’s tightening his trash talk, ready to prove that he can “throw those ‘bows” on the blacktop or from the Oval Office.

With the surefire bet of GOP union-busting looking a little shakier, the new tactic seems to ante up the ego jackpot for the man (or woman) attempting to boot Obama from the White House.

Prove your gonads! Etch your glory in history! Take down THIS president! 

Chatter aside, smart money is still on the president. And for now, so is the public. For now.