President Obama’s interventions in this debate have been gifts to the Republican party–but it may be that what Republicans should do now is take the gift to the bank. In other words, make your point and move back to talking about the economy, the health-care law, and the size of government.

A lot of voters, maybe most of them, think that Obama has spent too much time on issues they don’t care about: Cambridge police procedures, the siting of the Olympics, etc. A Republican candidate could make a fairly effective stump speech out of that perception. Republicans should want the public to view Obama as the guy who has made the mosque an issue when what voters care about is the economy. If they spend more time talking about it themselves, that won’t happen.