President Obama’s team is still at it, preemptively spinning what we’re supposed to assume will be a relatively abysmal showing for the president in the first debate on ‘domestic’ issues this Wednesday evening and eagerly providing us with all of the non-substantive reasons that he’ll have such a tough time competing in that forum. I suppose it probably can’t be all it’s cracked up to be, being so gosh dang eloquent and intellectual — especially when pitted against an opponent the same camp is always saying is just so impossibly down-to-earth, in-touch, and relatable. Wait… come again? Via the Washington Examiner:

President Obama’s campaign spokeswoman said she’s concerned Obama will sound too “professorial” to resonate with the low-information voters tuning into the presidential campaign for the first time during this week’s debate.

“[W]hat the American [people] are looking for is not just a professorial list of facts or accomplishments or even goals,” Obama campaign spokeswoman Jen Psaki said yesterday as part of her ongoing, almost-comical attempt to lower expectations going into the debates. She then lamented that Obama “has a tendency to give longer, substantive answers.” …

Maybe it has to do with their target audience. “He wants to speak directly to the families — the people who are on their couches at home, having snacks, drinking a beer, drinking soda, whatever it is, and tuning in for the first time — and that’s who he’s speaking directly to,” she said.

Deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter also chimed in again on CNN, telling us that “Mitt Romney is likely to win” if he plays his cards correctly:

President Obama (who, as we all very well know, is usually known for his tremendous sense of modesty) seemed to feel the same way, downplaying his debating skills at a fundraiser in Las Vegas last night:

You may have heard that in a few days, my opponent in this election and I are going to have a debate. I’m looking forward to it. I know folks in the media are speculating already on who is going to have the best zingers — who is going to put the most points on the board… Governor Romney, he’s a good debater. I’m just okay.

This, by the way, was just before the president retired to a resort near the Las Vegas strip to hunker down for a few days of debate prep (since, you know, “no president in history” has prepared quite as much as Mitt Romney).