Come on, Roger. You cannot reasonably ask people on the right to fold this Full House in the Texas Hold ‘Em of Identity Politics. The favor with most assuredly not be returned if McCain or Palin flubs up along the way.

Lawyers, like Obama, always want to give themselves some measure of plausible deniability but what you cannot deny is the reaction of that crowd. They got exactly what he meant and what he was going for.

When have you ever seen a cheer like that to such a shopworn idiom? It was a planned callback to a memorable line from her speech and the “old fish” remark that followed it was as well.

This shouldn’t be beat into the ground but by the same token it shouldn’t get a pass either. For Christ’s sake you’re trying to bury it and it hasn’t even made into one network news cycle yet.