Bad Hillary!

Time's resident foreign policy expert and all-around wise old head Joe Klein discusses what should be a revealing moment about Obama's campaign. Obama, yet again, is caught out saying something that he doesn't believe, this time about Iraq, and his solemn vows to get the U.S. out. Turns out those vows are a lot of hooey. This despite him promising a "new kind of politics," and despite the fact that many of the more crazed of his crazed supporters got that way just because of his position on Iraq. This ought to be a defining moment, and any Dem disliked by the media creatures would be pulled apart, limb by limb, for getting caught out in something like this (this is, incidentally, twice Ms Power -- the person Obama chose to be his chief foreign policy adviser -- has put her foot in her mouth. But what sets him apart is superior judgment!)

What does Klein do? Writes an idiot post that bemoans the state of politics -- a favorite Beltway topic -- while absolving poor Obama of any greater sin than being a normal politician -- which he claims he isn't! -- while managing to denigrate Hillary throughout. Given the theme of Obama's campaign these constant admissions of duplicity on his part should be fatal, but the Joe Kleins of the world line up and cover for him, over and over and over again. Until he runs into McCain. Rude awakening. The most recent polls I've seen show him even with Hillary in a head-to-head against McCain, this despite the disparity between their press treatment. I liked Obama, then I was wary, then I wanted to like him, tried to like him, but now I'm just tired of him. He might win the whole thing yet: the economy is looking increasingly dismal, and McCain is tied at the hip to Bush's economic policies. But Obama is starting to look like a smarter version of George Bush to me -- a guy who should not be where he is, and would not be there if we did not have systemic problems with our democracy, problems that start with the press corps and their wise old heads like Joe Klein.