So which is it? 'Bitter' is going to take a toll on Obama over time? Or, the whole thing is just another pundits' tempest, a week of yakking back and forth that ends up making no difference in the real world of public opinion?

As noted earlier, the first big crop of polls seems to show literally no movement whatsoever, when each is added together. Maybe it hasn't had time to show up yet -- a speculation there is no way to disprove. I've heard endless arguments on both sides dissecting the few sentences in question. And the vast proportion of the analyses come from rich people from New York and DC, people who really have little entre or insight into how blue-collar people in rural and small-town America think.

Meanwhile, the two national tracking polls (Gallup and Rasmussen) show Obama's lead either remaining steady or slightly expanding.