We have observed once or twice before that, at this point, President Obama seems to be trolling his opposition. The thickness with which he laid on the contraception issues at last year's Democratic Convention, for example, seemed ill-advised until the general conservative flip-out (and Obama's reelection) made it look brilliant.

The recent gun control furor seems to be similarly engineered. Whenever Obama makes a mild move in the anti-gun direction -- like his nothingburger executive actions a few weeks back -- the brethren go berserk, and ordinary Americans looking at the two sides are encouraged to think Obama's isn't the crazy one.

Last week, damned if Obama didn't do it again, with first an assertion and then photographic evidence that he had been skeet-shooting at Camp David.

It all started when Obama was challenged by The New Republic, "Have you ever fired a gun?" and he said, "Yes, in fact, up at Camp David, we do skeet shooting all the time." He was immediately and strenuously disbelieved by rightbloggers.