Reply #22: This is excellent analysis. You nailed it.

[Mark Twain Girl]

The statements are not really arguments, they are sales pitches, verbal jousting to wear down the marks and get them to buy. Or, the true believer tries to portray themselves as an actualized enlightened individual who "gets it," who has "seen the light" and portray the mark in contrast as hopelessly old fashioned or out of fashion, or unhappy and unenlightened, or about to be left behind by the giddy starry-eyed mob.

Oh yes. My favorite fluid belief is "Obama is a revolution/change/transformation/carnival with dancing unicorns." And then when you start pointing out the details of Obama's (purposefully small) record, he's no longer a revolution. He's merely "the best we have." He's merely "better than Hillary." He's merely "imperfect and dealing with the realities of policy making." The switch is made with such ease, it's hard to tell if the person is (a)a cynical saleperson or (b)a non-critical true believer.

Honestly, my big question mark with the general is the MSM. If Obama gets the nom and if you have KO (and it doesn't bother me what KO is up to, because I always disliked him, but it does gall me to see commentators I do actually like join in) and Matthews and all the usual suspects continue their fawning, it will be less of an issue. It's hard for me to picture the MSM turning on their Messiah, but I suppose it could happen.

On edit: I just ran in/ran out of GDP and I saw someone do exactly what I mentioned above re: the switch.