Obama's Supporters Pile On

The Obama campaign's downward spiral has reached that point where ostensible allies begin to criticize - and not in gentle way.

There's a lot of going on right now. Richard Cohen yesterday. And, that purveyor of the most conventional of conventional wisdom, Tom Friedman today. Both of these keyboard debaters slap Obama around for being too "cool."

Of course, some of the criticism doesn't make a lot of sense, like this from Friedman:

Somebody needs to tell Obama that if he wants the chance to calmly answer the phone at 3 a.m. in the White House, he is going to need to start slamming down some phones at 3 p.m. along the campaign trail.

How, one might ask, is mishandling telephonic equipment going convince the American public that a President Obama is a good idea? Will he hang up in a snit when Medvedev or Putin misbehave? Will the firmly replaced receiver be called upon to replace missiles in silos or F-15s on the hanger deck? Will the steaming silence on the other end of the line convince the Iranians to beat centrifuges into Pan flutes?

It must surely be one of the most difficult aspects of political life that people who have never held office, run for office or exercised any public responsibilities that didn't involve a check by the editor prior to publication should be handing out innanities like this. Yet another reason you'll not find my name on a ballot; I might be tempted to become very curt with my critics.