Bitter-gate (Dennis)

This is the first time I've seen Obama in full mock mode, and the shots he's able to lay on Hillary here shows us why (in both directions), misstatements and all we're better of with Obama the politician rather than Hillary Clinton the politician. Yes Obama showed a penchant for a novice mistake, but he's also pretty clever and has been able to wriggle himself out of things before. Some Democrat was going to have to shed the liberal elite label and I think we're better off with his skill.

Hillary, on the other hand is an enormous phony, and (worse) doesn't hide it very well. Another reason why both Gore and Kerry lost was that they were perceived as exaggerators who would do anything to get elected. Gore had all those incidents you've now forgotten from people believing he said he invented the internet to that horrendous fake kiss of Tipper at the DNC. With Kerry, it was the perception that he made up his Vietnam service record which gained traction because he was such a weasel in his political career.

On this whole bitter-gate, as Josh Marshall from TPM pointed out, most of the people we've heard saying this was an enormous error that will kill Obama are liberal supporters of Hillary Clinton, and "elite" John McCain fans. So, while I'm a little worried, forgive me if I'm not jumping out the window in a state of panic. Most of these geniuses were also the ones who told us that John Kerry was electable, that Democrats should support the Iraq war, that Hillary Clinton's money made her inevitable, and that her organization would outclass the bumbling Obama idealists and on and on and on. There's a tendency among people who watch politics to stereotype the race and the electorate so that they can make predictions (I'm including myself here). No surprise then that those predictions usually aren't accurate or are right for the wrong reasons.

So on this whole affair I'm taking a wait and see mode about what the effects will be, but I'm certainly not having second thoughts about my original pick. I've been swayed away too many times from the right choice via the kind of worry that's taking hold among liberals now.