Wishful thinking on your part. His skin color may have helped him get into the school. The Law Review is a cutthroat business. I am paraphrasing an earlier point by Laura Ingraham.
He has never before gone against an aggressive, skilled debater. He is the AZ Cardinals offensive line of debaters.
Do you mean "other than Hillary Clinton & John Edwards?" The measure of a debater's skill is not whether you (an admittedly biased conservative) agree with them. It is whether they can sway public opinion. Obama may be out of practice, he may have the facts against him here, but he is still a VERY effective public speaker. And we certainly have not heard the last of him.
To play along with your football reference, you are starting to sound a bit like the New England Patriots before last year's Super Bowl.
He is a teleprompter reader.