Bitter? A Cure for What Ails You

It's no secret: every recent utterance, and every distant association, of Busboys and Poets' favorite Presidential candidate is being parsed to the point of absurdity by his opponents, both Democratic and Republican.

Hendrik Hertzberg, in the new New Yorker, speaks to the absurdity surrounding the recent Philadelphia debate:

In the seven weeks since the previous Clinton-Obama debate, the death toll of American troops in Iraq had reached four thousand; the President had admitted that his "national-security team," including the Vice-President, had met regularly in the White House to approve the torture of prisoners; house repossessions topped fifty thousand per month and unemployment topped five per cent; and the poll-measured proportion of Americans who believe that "things have pretty seriously gotten off on the wrong track" hit eighty-one per cent, a record.

In other words, only an out-of-touch elitist could call someone an out-of-touch elitist for observing that almost everyone has a reason to be bitter about the shape of national politics.

The Pennsylvania primary holds the potential to release us from at least one aspect of this madness: if Obama finishes within a single-digit margin of Clinton tonight, Stephanopoulos and his peers among the punditry might finally acknowledge that this race is between Obama and McCain, between responsible policies and destructive delusion. Hertzberg goes on to dream:

The battle might even be about ideas.

Have you been living in the Washington, D.C., area long enough that your first reaction to such a statement is "yeah, right"?

Or do you perceive a change in the wind?

We'll be watching tonight's events with rapt attention at the Busboys and Poets' Shirlington, VA, location. It'll be a community of Obama supporters, political activists, and just plain political junkies, gathered around a big screen and enjoying the drink specials and free wi-fi.

Details are here, courtesy of MyBarrackObama:

Join your friends at Busboys and Poets as we anticipate the PA returns! 7PM-till the last vote is counted! Drink Specials throughout the night. The returns will be shown on our Big Screen Projector and in our bar.

Join us!