Ballon Juice asks Are they (Wingnuts) really that dumb?

Er, yes.
As, of course, are their pals on the left side of the spectrum. Indeed, as soon as one becomes wedded to any one ideology, one loses the capacity to think and analyze. The entire attraction of an ideology is the ability to stop thinking. Thinking is hard work, after all. Reality is never as neat as theater.
Check out Cole for details: http://www.balloon-juice.com/?p=9759
But the gist of the story is this. Obama cited an example of how the Iraq war has distracted us from finishing the job in Afghanistan. He cited the experience of an Army officer who had to deploy with only 24 men in his platoon to Afghanistan because demands for Iraq siphoned off the rest.
The blognuts descended instantly with criticisms.most of which were pretty stupid off the bat. Some jumped on the fact that a captain wasn't a platoon leader's rank. Naturally, I assumed when I heard the story that the man was a current captain who was most likely a lieutenant when he was a platoon leader. Duh.
Without rehashing the whole thing, several media outlets checked the original source and the essence of the story is completely accurate, within the necessary limits of making a point within the constraints of a sound bite.
Conservatives used to be most devastating when they made clearly reasoned, logical arguments based on facts. There are a handful who still remember how to do that. William F. Buckley, of course, and his heir apparent as the intellectual conservative, George Will. Until that style comes back into fashion, and they drive back the yahoos, they're not likely to come in from the wilderness anytime soon.