"There's an old saying in Tennessee. I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee, that says: 'Fool me once... shame on... [pause] Shame on you... [pause] If fooled, you can't get fooled again.'"

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This is part of a comment I made this morning on yesterday's post; at the risk of being gauche, I feel compelled to drag this bit out from the tail end of a 50ish-page thread:

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I'm not about to go back (up?) and identify the comments that prompted this observation, although I believe that Retired Military Patriot largely inspired it with a comment that essentially sounded like, "Come on now, buck up and return to the realization that there's no one else to support but Obama!"

I appreciate that it was honest and well-intended, but it flashed me back to a little running campaign between my sister and my niece when my niece was in high school.

My sister was somehow acquainted with a boy who lived nearby, and attended the same high school as my niece. My sister thought this kid-- let's call him "Obama"-- had it all: he was good-looking, an honor student, an athlete, and was personable. (How reliable this assessment was is an open question.) Since my niece also possessed these qualities and achievements, my sister apparently saw a match made in Heaven.

So my sister used to encourage my niece to get to know him, etc. Whenever his name popped up, my sister would wonder aloud why my niece wasn't making a run at him, etc. She did it facetiously, with a tongue-in-cheek tone, but it was clear that beneath this, my sister really did think highly of the kid and genuinely hoped that my niece would share her opinion.

Of course-- as my sister probably realized, even though she couldn't help herself-- the more she touted Obama, the more annoyed my niece got, and the more resistant she became. And, possibly because I am not myself a parent, I didn't find my niece's resistance symptomatic of "immaturity", and conclude that my sister was "right" and my niece "wrong".

Nothing ever came of it, and eventually it did become more of a "joke". But I'm reminded of it because it has the same tone as the commenters who argue in Parent Knows Best terms that Obama is still the go-to guy, and that it really isn't thinking very clearly to repudiate him because he's doing the best he can in a tight spot.

I appreciate that Glenn hasn't repudiated or rejected Obama for flinging down and dancing upon the Constitution, and urges us to stay the course and institute damage control. But he's not self-righteous about it. Otherwise, not only am I increasingly put off every time some Pragmatic Political Parent tells me what a lovely boy Obama really is-- I resent their attempt to minimize the fact that their Golden Child just backed over us in the parking lot and drove away smiling.