This week's nutshell moment

Everything that is wrong with the commentariat, and by extension the larger population, is on display in this pathetic column in the WaPo from Sally Quinn, It follows the Richard Cohen model of proudly admitting one's own disqualifying character flaws because the (un)penitent is so blind that s/he does not realize how pathetic the admission really is.

The details are all on display @ No More Mister Nice Blog. In short, Quinn reveals her own infantilized view of the role of our Daddy-in-Chief.

When I was little, I had a recurrent dream that there was a terrible earthquake. My father, his body a horse with wings, swooped down from the sky, kneeled so I could jump on his back and flew away just as the earth cracked open beneath me. It was my most comforting dream. I want to live in that world again. I want to live in John McCain's world.

It goes on and on like that.

This jaw-dropping piece raises two questions for me. First, do enough American voters operate from this kind of logic-free, magical world view to put John McCain in the White House? And I am increasingly afraid the answer will be yes.

The second question is whether this sad state of affairs is hardwired, or if the confluence of organized religion and dumb as dirt media have made it so (or at least worse). I don't know the answer there, but I am damned sure that those two factors ain't helping any.

I think Obama is running a good, though certainly not great campaign that appeals to our better angels. A month or two ago, I was confident that his personal gifts, combined with the perfect storm of a disastrous incumbent, would be enough to overcome the troglodyte contingent. Now I'm not so sure.

We may be fresh out of angels.