The scope of last night’s defeat has begun to dawn on Barack Obama supporters. Bob Wright squares off against Mickey Kaus, both of Slate, and Wright rails against Kaus’ participation in what Wright considers a right-wing attack job on Obama. He never really explains how Hillary Clinton and Mickey Kaus, of all people, fit into the vast right-wing conspiracy. However, Wright sounds pretty despondent as even he has to admit how badly Obama has botched the campaign of late:

I hate to burst the fantasy that Wright and other Obama supporters have begun to spin, but issues alone do not decide elections. Tangibles such as experience and track records count when assessing a candidate, but Obama has little of either to offer. When that happens, people look at intangibles to get a sense of the person they’re considering, especially for the highest office in the land. When the intangibles indicate that Obama is a hard-Left elitist who sees nothing wrong with establishing political ties to unrepentant domestic terrorists and believes that middle Americans are Bible-thumping bigots who need a whopping dose of federal regulation, it tends to provide plenty of information to fill the vacuum.

Besides, Obama didn’t do all that well on policy, either, a point Wright misses. From his stumbles over al-Qaeda in Iraq to tax policy on capital gains, Obama has revealed himself as a shallow and superficial politician more at home discussing nebulous themes than a coherent policy. In that sense, the first 45 minutes of the last debate may give Obama and his followers a codpiece for the unbearable lightweight-ness of Barack.