From James Taranto on Obama’s “Muslim” denial.

Second, it puts the ugly attitudes of the liberal elite on display, à la Lonesome Rhodes’s open-mic incident in “A Face in the Crowd.” Now we know that James Carville thinks “there are a lot of stupid people out there.” At least those who work in the Obama White House are, for the most part, disciplined enough not to make such insulting statements–as Carville himself was when he worked for President Clinton. Yet when people hear such contemptuous statements from the president’s supporters in the media (as well as from some in politics, most notably Speaker Nancy Pelosi), they can draw their own conclusions about what Obama and his inner circle think of them.

Thus, at a time when the vast majority of voters oppose the president’s policies for any number of legitimate reasons, the media’s self-superior dwelling on “stupid” or “kooky” Obama critics tends to marginalize Obama, not his opponents. Obama’s presidency is being consumed in a bonfire of liberal vanities.