In the second half of today's "As The Left Eat Their Own," the New York Times' Bob Herbert goes after Democrats for "doing everything they can to blow this presidential election."

And that was just the first sentence of his scathing rebuke of all things currently left-leaning.

With that as an appetizer, readers are advised to strap themselves into their comfiest chairs with a nice bucket of popcorn at their sides, and prepare for a ride guaranteed to thrill beyond their wildest expectations (emphasis added throughout):

Jimmy Carter managed to win the White House in 1976 by looking pious and riding a wave of anti-Watergate revulsion. After four hapless years, he dutifully handed the keys back to the G.O.P.

Bill Clinton tried hard to lose, with sex scandals and whatnot, during the 1992 campaign. But Ross Perot wouldn’t let him. Mr. Clinton won with a piddling 43 percent of the vote. For eight years, Mr. Clinton tried to throw the presidency away (with sex scandals and whatnot), but he was never able to succeed.

That’s been it for the party for the past 40 years. The Democrats have become so psychologically battered by these many decades in the leadership wilderness that they consider the Clinton years, during which the president was impeached and they lost control of both houses of Congress, to have been a period of triumph.

Amazing honesty, and rather rare for a media member, wouldn't you agree?

After all, in just three short paragraphs, Herbert disparaged the only two presidents the Democrats have been able to get into office since Johnson was re-elected. In so doing, he spoke an inconvenient truth few on the left ever dare: if not for Ross Perot, Clinton NEVER would have won in 1992.

Maybe more shocking, Herbert was willing to admit how absurd it is for the left in this nation to look upon the Clinton years -- when the Democrats lost control of both chambers of Congress for the first time in many decades -- as their crowning achievement.

But Herbert wasn't done -- not by a long shot:

Hillary Clinton’s disapproval ratings have climbed into a zone that makes it legitimate to wonder whether she could defeat Senator McCain. And much of the excitement and enthusiasm surrounding Mr. Obama’s candidacy has cooled.

That raucous laughter you hear in the background is coming from the likes of Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, President Bush and Senator McCain. They can’t believe their good fortune.

Frankly, I'm not sure I agree with this, for despite the polls and conventional wisdom six months ago presaging an almost certain Democrat victory in November 2008, many on the right saw this for what it was: the media, as they often do, trying to create a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Regardless of this shameless posturing, many Republicans saw Clinton and Obama as being empty suits that wouldn't withstand extensive scrutiny, and, as such, really aren't at all surprised by their collapse.

Of course, nobody predicted the current stalemate, or it lasting this long -- which, indeed, has been quite fortunate:

Instead of capitalizing on the political advantages presented by these issues, the Democrats, with their increasingly small-minded approach to this election, are squandering them. [...]

It’s not too late for the Democrats to pull this off. But there’s already blood on the floor from the nomination fight, and the fight ain’t over. The G.O.P.’s fondest wish is that the Democrats keep doing what they’re doing.

You're darn tootin', Bob. And, we hope you liberals in the media keep eating your candidates this way -- in plain sight, for all to see...and, hopefully, for the next seven months!

Would somebody pass the beer nuts?

—Noel Sheppard is the Associate Editor of NewsBusters.