If this isn’t a Democratic-excuse-making shark-jumper, I don’t know what is.

AL GORE: I’m going to say something controversial here. Uh, Obama arrived in Denver at 2 p.m. today, just a few hours before the debate started. Romney did his debate prep, in Denver. When you go to 5,000 feet, and you only have a few hours to adjust, uh — I don’t know, maybe…

Yes, I’m sure that the tiring effects of a freshly heightened altitude made all the difference in the world, and that Obama’s terrible showing couldn’t have had anything to do with his abysmal record of failure or his deep-seated antipathy to being challenged by non-friendly fire, and that Romney’s vim and verve was fueled along by all of that high-altitude debate training he’s done. Or something.