As an Obama supporter, I'm disappointed by tonight's results.  Unlike the brain dead media, I realize that wiping out a 20 point lead in states like Ohio and Texas was never a sure thing.  And yet, I have to concede that once again (shads of Nevada, New Hampshire), Obama was badly outmaneuvered in the final days of this campaign.  For all the complaints coming from the Clinton campaign about unfair treatment from the press, they remain far more effective when it comes to manipulating the press than the Obama campaign has been.  And while I'm pretty disgusted by the Rove tactics employed by the Clinton campaign, the fact of the matter is that Obama is likely to face far worse from the Republican campaign, and he needs to start demonstrating his abilty to fight back.  Seriously, he's got to start throwing some punches or he's going to get tagged -- justifiably, in my view -- as just another high minded but weaked kneed liberal from the Adlai Stevenson/Michael Dukakis school.

And let's face it, he's essentially let Hillary off the hook an many issues.  She's made health care her signature issue, even though it was her own gross incompetence as head of the Clinton administration's health care task force that set back the cause of universal health care by nearly two decades.  She's put Obama on the defensive over ethics, when she's the one who's refused to release her tax returns, who was embroiled in scandal throughout the Clinton adminsitration, and who's penchant for secrecy and vendettas is downright Nixonian.  She's dismissed him as a talker not a doer, when his record of legislative accomplishments is actually far more substantial than hers.

Seriously, Barack.  It's time to take the gloves off.