First in an Infinite Series

The other day, Rachel Maddow sat down with "our" candidate for a chat. Let's review some highlights.

She starts with a question that's been on the minds of real Democrats coast to coast. Get a load of his answer.

RACHEL MADDOW, HOST: Senator, you criticize the Bush administration frequently. But, you almost never criticize the Republican Party itself. Other Democrats --

SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Much to your chagrin.

Especially note the snotty and supercilious look on his face as he delivers this arrogant and deliberately unfunny brushoff. Translation: "I don't have to give squat to Democrats, except the opportunity to vote for the One."

Swallowing her chagrin, Maddow begs again pretty please for a smidgen of partisan love:

MADDOW: Well, yes, actually. I mean, other Democrats, you will hear them talk about the GOP as the party that's been wrong on all the big stuff. Creating Social Security, civil rights, the War in Iraq. But, you don't really do that. Do you think there is a stark difference between the parties?

OBAMA: Well, I do think there's a difference between the parties, but here's my belief. That I'm talking to voters. And I think they're a lot of Republican voters out there, self-identified, who actually think that what the Bush administration has done, has been damaging to the country.

Sorry Rachel, but the O man is just too busy to converse with the base, much less promise anything to it. Maddow recounts some of the insults McCain has unloaded on Obama and Democrats in general, and then gamely if servilely pleads once more for just a little R E S P E C T:

MADDOW: That's not just an anti-Barack Obama script.

OBAMA: No.

MADDOW: That is -- he's reading from an anti-Democrat, and specifically an anti-liberal stance.

OBAMA: Absolutely.

MADDOW: And so, you have the opportunity to say John McCain, George Bush, you're wrong. You also have the opportunity to say, conservatism has been bad for America. But, you haven't gone there either.

OBAMA: I tell you what though, Rachel. You notice, I think we're winning right now so --

(LAUGHTER)

Whaddya mean WE, asshole? You have the nerve to laugh right in our faces and then talk about WE?

But the worst, and strangest, is yet to come. Obama delivers one of the strangest remarks I've ever seen delivered in the context of a purportedly professional and friendly TV interview:

OBAMA: Maybe I'm doing something right. I know you've been cruising for a bruising for a while here, looking for a fight out there. But, I just think people are tired of that kind of back and forth, tit for tat, ideological approach to the problems.

"you've been cruising for a bruising for a while here" WHAT??? Is that normal discourse in this setting? I've never seen it. It sounds like a personal threat, surrounded by just enough vagueness to provide a cloak of plausible deniability. Feel free to chastise me for saying so, but seeing that left a VERY bad taste.

So here's my question to anyone: If the Democratic base can't even get an attitude of basic respect, much less even a pretense of vague promises, from its candidate WHILE HE'S RUNNING FOR OFFICE, what makes you thinks we'll get even a TRACE of policy satisfaction once he's safely inaugurated? Bueller? Anyone?