I've been reading a lot of posts on the Internet yesterday and today where people have expressed concern at how McCain and Palin are whipping their supporters into frothy-mouthed hatred of Barack Obama.

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TPM founder Joshuah Micah Marshall said yesterday that the new McCain ad--comparing Obama to celebrities Britnay Spears and Paris Hilton-- sought to imply that Obama has a "taste for young white women."

Of course, Marshall did not provide any reasoning whatsoever to explain how he came to that conclusion, or where in the ad the possibility of Obama being attracted to white women is even hinted. Go ahead, readers. See the ad and be your own judge.

Inventing this kind of BS worked against Hillary Clinton, because virtually everyone in the media, left, center and right, hated her, and refused to ask the likes of Marshall to lay out the premises behind their arguments.

But these are not the primaries. The corporate media no longer feels compelled to play dumb, since Marshall's target is their beloved John McCain, not Clinton.

Washington Post's media critic Howard Kurtz, for instance, found Marshall's remarks puzzling:

But isn't the McCain camp mockingly comparing Obama to the likes of Britney Spears, rather than implying that he likes to hang with starlets?

Again, Marshall should start making sense, since his comments will be scrutinized this time around. McCain is not a Clinton.

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Over at Talking Points Memo, Josh Marshall just called out the Hillary Clinton campaign on the hypocrisy of its Florida/Michigan posturing:

Sen. Clinton ... is embarking on a gambit that is uncertain in its result and simply breathtaking in its cynicism.

Coming from Marshall -- who has been unstinting in investigating the Bush administration's excesses, while remaining evenhanded about the Democratic candidates -- this has got to sting.

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I was just over at TalkingPointsMemo.com, and Josh just did what I didn't think possible: he truly jumped the shark.

At the top of his site is a YouTube video of Geraldine Ferraro with the words SEND IN THE CLOWN superimposed over her image.

Folks, and I'm addressing Obama supporters here, you plainly don't get it. We may have just reached the point if we haven't already where the collective Sisterhood of America - especially those over age 40 - are so pissed that any poll showing Obama beating McCain in November is clearly unreliable at this point, as the Dem's biggest voting bloc is going to willingly make the choice to either sit this election out or give Obama a swift kick in the groin by voting for McCain.

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Hats off to the Obama team for a very strong win in South Carolina.  I credit their win to a strong GOTV effort and organization, especially of the African American community.  In the run-up to the primary I missed the stories hinting at the strength of that machine.  The first hint of that came from Jim Clyburn here.  I'm not saying the Congressman overtly told people to support Obama.  But in retrospect it seems that the Obama team must have benefitted from Clyburn's efforts whatever his intent was.  And Matt Stoller has a great follow-up description of that organizational strength that goes a long way toward explaining how Obama blew away the competition by outhustling them.

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