(Disclaimer: Irritable blog syndrome)

I know it's a slow period, but there are now four recommended posts (pro-Obama of course) about the "bitter" brouhaha, and countless readers posts and comments expressing self-righteous indignation on the subject.

Reality check. What we have here are a bunch of mostly educated, middle-to-upper class bloggers heatedly debating about which educated, upper class candidate most authentically connects with working class people based on soundbites that have been prepared by their campaigns. It's nonsense from every direction.

Anatomy of a brouhaha:

1. Obama, presenting to fundraisers in CA, spins the challenges he faces getting votes from (a.k.a. "connecting with") working class voters. In the process, he makes an ill-considered generalization, which is picked up by HuffPo

2. Clinton & McCain smell blood. Polls show that Obama is perceived as "elitist". Their campaigns simultaneously leap into action, stridently, righteously arguing that Obama is elitist and out of touch with the working class (particularly hypocritical in the case of McCain but disingenuous in both cases).

3. Obama strategists see a problem. Obama stridently, righteously defends his point and argues that the other candidates, particularly McCain, are the out of touch ones.

4. Clinton brings up her wholesome churchgoing, midwestern roots to prove, beyond shadow of a doubt, that she's the one with a true connection to the working class. (Obama, of course, goes to the "wrong" church.) McCain will surely weigh in soon. I can't wait for someone to say that they were the son of mill worker.

5. The blogosphere mobilizes. He's elitist. No he courageously speaks the truth. No he's full of shit. No she's full of shit. No you're full of shit.

I say: You're all full of shit. And so are Obama, Clinton, and McCain. "Connecting with working class" is a political game in Washington. Basically you say whatever you and your pollsters think that working class voters most want to hear (as long as it doesn't obviously contradict your policies). You champion 2 or 3 issues that polls say the working class care about, e.g. mortgages, immigration, NAFTA. You highlight the parts of your biography that pollsters say the working class will most identify with. And then you pretend that the statements, policies, biographical data selected by your pollsters demonstrate that you are the one with the true working class creds.

Every candidate has to play this game to be elected, so let them play. But anyone who jumps up and down excitedly about what these campaign stratagems say about the true natures of their preferred candidates has been played. I urge everyone at TPM to try to contain their enthusiasm.

As noted over at TPM Election Central, Hillary is laughing again:

MSNBC: Today, she responded with a hearty laugh -- the kind once criticized and mocked by pundits and the media

CNN: Hillary Clinton used her trademark laugh Thursday to deflect a question

WaPo: Sen. Hillary Clinton turned to a tactic she had used often early in her campaign, though not recently: laughing off the question

I respect Senator Clinton. I've heard that she has an excellent sense of humor and finds many things funny. I, myself, have also been known to chuckle politely in appropriate contexts and even to type LOL on occasion. (Though never ROFL and certainly not ROFLMAO, which I find inappropriate. Have you ever seen anyone roll on the floor laughing? Have you ever seen someone laugh so hard that their ass fell off? Of course not. It's a silly notion.)

But there is a right way to laugh and a wrong way. Hillary has chosen the wrong way. It's one thing to tee-hee at the dinner table in response to funny jokes about Senator McCain's advanced age and clever puns concerning Reverend Wright's last name. It's quite another to cackle on the record at a press conference. Not only does she laugh, she laughs heartily, shamelessly, dare I say, spectacularly. Now I know that Hillary's supporters will argue that a laugh is just a laugh, but not in Hillary's esophagus it's not. Hillary is a smart, experienced politician. That laugh has been polled-tested, focused-grouped, and strategized. She knows exactly what she's doing. I hate to invoke racial stereotypes, but we all know that black people and white people laugh differently. It has something to to with divergent evolution of the diaphragm. Hillary laughs like a white person. Have you ever heard Obama laugh like that? Or Louis Farrakhan? By laughing in this manner, Hillary is obviously once again exploiting racial divisions for her benefit. I'm not saying that she's a racist. She's just a typical white laugher. In the interest of party unity and all that is still holy in the world, I call on her to reject and denounce her laugh and to demand its resignation for her campaign.

I'm only writing this because I'm procrastinating and there's nothing worth replying to. If we're lucky, it will receive enough recommendations to push gotalife off the recommend list.

1. Destor23 on why obama doesn't suck
Destor, I know that you're new to this whole Obama thing, but we've been making these arguments for the past 6 months.

2. JedReport on how Obama criticized the war before Clinton
Shocker

3. Elisabeth Baumann on how McCain should not conflate withdrawal and surrender
Thanks for the heads up; I almost got suckered.

4. Michelle A. on how Wolfson owns stock in a company that's getting paid to promote a trade agreement with Colombia
Not sure how team Clinton will be able to recover from this one

5. Ben Hocking on trolls
Troll-bashing is so last week's recommended list.

6. Merlot makes light of post-traumatic stress disorder and John McCain
PTSD is of course endlessly funny.

7. Flufferwink on Bill Clinton's Columbia connection
This one is the closest to news. But if there's no drug connection or sexual escapades, I really don't care.

8. Merlot yammers some more about McCain PTSD
What's amazing is that both of his posts made the recommended list. I like this sourceless assertion: "The psychological literture makes it clear, McCain did and does suffer from PTSD".

9. azpaull on how everyone should apologize for being mean to Clinton about the hospital story
Sorry Hillary

10. hunter thompson on how everyone should apologize for being mean to Clinton about the hospital story
I said I was sorry

And for a finale, over at Election Central (which doesn't have flufferwink's post because he/she forgot to check the "Election Central" box

11. gotalife makes its debut on the recommend list by reprinting dembillc's laundry list of alleged Obama lies (which were in turn plagiarized from somewhere else)
I can't decide which is more appalling: that gotalife made the recommendation list or that its inane post received 103 comments. (Granted, half of them are gotalife's.) And where is dembillc to protest the theft of its best material?

Earlier this evening, a prominent blogger and Clinton supporter, known only by a Ric Flair avatar and the inscrutable screen name, destor23, publicly endorsed Barack Obama at talkingpointsmemo.com. Long considered one of them most intelligent and thoughtful of the pro-Clinton bloggers, destor23 has been aggressively courted by Obama supporters in recent weeks. While some well-known fence sitters, such as the Zaftig Redhead, have recently joined the Obama camp, destor23 is the first prominent pro-Clinton blogger to switch sides. His (or her, I'm going with his) endorsement is significant because it could send a signal to other pro-Clinton bloggers that it's OK to switch. airwon, kensdad, and another_reader are also considered up for grabs.

Two weeks ago, destor23 published a scathing criticism of Clinton's Bosnia exaggerations. Many within the blog community interpreted his remarks as a de facto endorsement, but destor23 refused to explicitly endorse at that time. The last straw, according to destor23's prepared statement this evening, was Clinton's claim to have criticized the Iraq war before she voted to authorize it, a claim which he called "wormy". (Snarksters point out that there was no Iraq war to criticize before she voted to authorize it.) Destor23 went on to compare Clinton to Sting after he left the Police, though it's really unclear who the Police are supposed to be in this analogy. Sinbad and Cheryl? And let's not get into the whole tantric sex thing.

According to sources close to destor23, he informed Hillary of his planned post during a very tense text-message exchange that reportedly lasted three hours and cost destor23, who does not have the unlimited text plan, $238.04.

Clinton supporters on TPM have already accused of destor of playing "Judas". Longtime Clinton troll Louisville1975 savaged destor with unusually biting wit: "Drank the whole glass of kool aid didn't you?" Readytoblowagasket accused destor of being "full of shit" but claimed that it was a joke after destor replied, "Blow me". (Editor's confession: I've always wanted to write that to readytoblowagasket but was afraid of being accused of sexism.)

Meanwhile, Obama supporters have enthusiastically welcomed the endorsement and have taken the opportunity to gleefully slam Clinton a few more times for good measure. A spokesperson for the Obama campaign has indicated that Obama would welcome destor23, saying, "We invite destor23 and all other bloggers to join our movement to unite the country in hope". The spokesperson hastened to add, "But we reject and denounce all trolls, and we encourage Hillary Clinton do do the same."

Late update: Clinton pollster, Mark Penn, has downplayed the significance of the post: "destor23 is a two-bit blogger unknown by anyone outside a pathetically incestuous circle of geeks. None of his posts would have made the recommended list if Hillary had not been multi-recommending them on different computers."