He’s managing to paint himself into a corner where he can’t possibly win the nomination. It’s just idiotic for him to play this game where if his campaign puts out a sharp-tongued oppo document, it’s violating his pledge to uplift American politics (and the D-Punjab thing was playing off a Hillary joke about herself!). At this rate, he’s going to be the relentlessly positive (until it was too late) Bill Bradley getting bull-dozed by a cut-throat Al Gore in 2000, with Hillary, of course, in the role of Gore.

Ron Brownstein has written the best piece of analysis about the Dem race I’ve seen this year, putting Obama in the “priest” category of Democrats (Hart, Tsongas, Bradley, etc.) who appeal to up-scale voters and usually lose, and putting Hillary in the “warrior” category that has more down-scale appeal and usually wins. This oppo controversy just confirms his insight.

By the way, I find the way the Obama document drips with disdain for all engagement with India to be distasteful, but if you hate out-sourcing and trade, as Democrats increasingly do, why shouldn’t it?