Remember how Obama supporters, pressed to defend actions and decisions by him that did not appear to be easily defensible, loved to argue that he was engaged in a game of 3-dimensional chess that his critics were just not equipped to understand? There’s a lot less of that going around lately, but it seems the argument is now being reincarnated in defense of a different (and somewhat unlikely) political personality.

Here are some of Sarah P.‘s more deeply devoted defenders explaining the 3-dimensional chess strategy behind the notes she had scribbled on her hand to help her answer an audience question at the Tea Party Convention:

CARLSON: I think she did it on purpose. I think she did it on purpose, yeah. Because it’s an exact opposite of reading off the teleprompter with a script written for you with every word in a sentence and here’s she’s just taking crib notes on her hand. It makes her look like she can just talk off the cuff and she just jotted down a few couple notes before she went out to give a big long speech.

DOOCY: I think she did it because she probably does it a lot. I do that all the time. [...]

KILMEADE: But to sit there and look at, and do the interview and look down at her hand, I think that is — like you said before, Gretchen — folksy, absolutely, down-to-earth, I can identify. But if you’re going to write on your hand, why not just say, ’staffer, hand me a card.’ And then it would be okay.

CARLSON: Nah, like I said, I think it was on purpose. But anyway, we we may never know.

So there you have it, folks! A brilliantly conceived and brilliantly executed (but 100% authentic folksy) plan to show up Mr. Can’t-even-speak-without-a-teleprompter-feeding-him-every-word. A plan that the ever-modest Sarah P. will refuse to take credit for in public, so we’ll never know for sure. Which is why not knowing shouldn’t be allowed to stand in the way of applause. Especially by practicing “journalists”. (Who knows, one day, with enough practice, …)