As a rule, Republicans appreciate the value in defining the Democratic presidential nominee, and the GOP is usually pretty good at it. In 2000, Al Gore, they said, was an “exaggerator.” In 2004, John Kerry, they said was a “flip-flopper.”

Four years later, the effort to define Barack Obama is proving to be more difficult. The GOP has experimented with a few different memes, but they haven’t stuck yet. Some even contradict each other.

For months, Karl Rove & Co. has sought to characterize Obama as a dangerous outsider who we don’t really know and can’t trust. More recently, Rove and his cohorts reversed course, and went with the opposite message: Obama isn’t a dangerous outsider anymore, now he’s an elite insider.

This week, Rove used his Wall Street Journal platform to push yet another meme: Obama the narcissist.

Such arrogance – even self-centeredness – have featured often in the Obama campaign.... The candidate’s self-centeredness has been on display before.

Yes, we should reject Obama because the outsider/insider candidate is now concerned about his (cue scary music) ... self-interests.

The bad news for Republicans is that they're stuck with garbled message and an undefined opponent four months before Election Day. The worse news is, these memes are largely nonsensical and easy to disprove.