If you'd ever wondered why our public discourse on the issues of the day seems so ridiculously retarded then I recommend Howard Fineman's latest piece because it explains a lot about how members of our elite press corp view the country's political process.  Fineman moves away from the old "horse race" analysis to the new "high school musical" analysis which basically says that the political process is typified by all the unbearable stereotypes that so annoyed you in high school. 

In effect, that political process is juvenile and unserious and you really shouldn't give a damn because you're screwed either way. This especially holds if we're only talking about the 2008 Democratic Primary, because I gotta tell ya I have a hard time seeing Fineman give John McCain the kind of send up he does Al Gore, ie. "... the ultimate goody-goody but who had grown a beard, made a film and dropped out to attend the School Without Walls".  

Dirty hippy or beatnik references seem a little dated to me but hey, I don't work for GE/NBC/Newsweek nor do I get paid for juvenile crap like this... kinda what you'd expect from say, the annoying editor of your high school yearbook.

(h/t Kevin Drum)