Best quote of yesterday

There's a very large bru-haha between Donna Brazile and Paul Begala - both heavy Democratic commentors, Paul I believe worked with the Clinton administration and Ms. Brazile worked on getting Al Gore elected (for all the good it did).

They have a back and forth about which voters the Dems need (and I think that Ms. Brazile has the better argument). But at the very end, this part jumped at me:

Begala: Yes, I'm sorry to intrude with a fact. But Alex is raising something that I think is going to be a loser for his party. His party believes that they think that they can beat Barack Obama by attacking his former pastor, or some guy he used to live in the neighborhood with 30 years ago. I think it is all nonsense.

We have some empirical proof. In the Louisiana House race, it was last week, this is a district that has been solidly Republican for 34 years, that voted 55 percent for George W. Bush. This is not a swing district. And they went in there, the Republicans did, and they ran ads attacking Barack Obama and attacking Reverend Wright.

And you know what the Republicans did?

They lost.

So as a Democrat, I don't even support Barack in the primaries, but I would gladly support him in the general election. And if Alex thinks they can win this by attacking people other than Barack Obama, somebody he used to know, somebody he used to listen to preach, I think that's a loser strategy for the Republicans.

That - is the most telling place. The same "Oh, he's an elitist, he's really a Muslim, he's really an American hater, he's a secret black racist" not only didn't work in one of the most Republican areas of the country - it blew up in their faces.

Maybe people are paying attention this time. Maybe the attacks just don't work on a guy who talks about Hope and Change. Either way, it looks like we've got a huge shot at not only the White House, but in taking back the country from people who feel it's been their personal checkbook for 8 years.