Without a hint of balance, Robert Kuttner of the Boston Globe thinks he has it all figured out -- 20 months before the election -- that the GOP candidates cannot win, while the Dems are the right ticket as he tries Taking stock of the 2008 field.

Naturally, his is another gusher for Barack Obama. But, he starts his piece in one way or another ripping each and every one of the GOP candidates, or those who would vote for them, before saying how "strong" the Dems field of candidates is.

Here are the results of his analyzing of the GOP field:

McCain – “...has lately emerged as more hawkish than the president himself. But by primary season, the war may be even more unpopular, and most Republicans will be distancing themselves from the Iraq mess, not urging its escalation.”

Giuliani – “...far too forthright ...”

Romney – “...is also on the defensive as a Mormon, since many fundamentalists don't consider Mormons Christians. Almost half a century after the civil rights revolution, this should not matter, but that's right-wing politics for you.”

And...

Of the also-rans, Senator Sam Brownback, a Kansas fundamentalist, is unlikely to travel well. Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas, has likewise failed to take off. And Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, a traditional conservative, would make a good president; but he's too vocal a critic of the president to be forgiven by loyalists.

Arnold Schwarzenegger is constitutionally disqualified as foreign-born. Jeb Bush might be plausible if his name were anything other than Bush. An oft-mentioned long shot, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, has never run for office.

Why Arnold was even mentioned is a mystery. His candidacy is a Constitutional impossibility. And it was nice how he just called every Republican voter a bigot.

So, none of them can win. But wait, Kuttner is sure the entire GOP, not just this crop of candidates, is sunk.

And it gets worse. The Bush administration has collapsed on so many fronts that Republican officeholders up for re election will be torn between saving their own necks and remaining loyal to the hard-core base. Eight or nine Republican Senate seats could be at risk.

So much for the evil GOP. Now the sunshine beams, the flowers open, and the birds start singing...

I have followed politics far too long to fall in love, but Obama is like nothing we have seen since Bobby Kennedy and maybe since FDR. If you haven't read his first book, "Dreams from My Father," you owe it to yourself.

It's telling that with his rhapsodizing -- but he ain't in love, truly he ain't -- Kuttner pushes Barack's book. Curiously, it isn't his latest book, the dry and empty "The Audacity of Hope" the book that is supposed to present the candidate in the serious light in which he wants to be seen, but the far older and better book "Dreams of my Father".

The older book is one that presents a far different man, one full of ideas, candid reflection, and hope. Sadly, the newer one reveals a man who has gone bland and become but a calculating politician, a sad shadow of his earlier self.

Obviously Kuttner doesn't want to sully the man he says he doesn't love by present his latest work by which voters might judge him.

Kuttner... again in his show of non-love... then ridiculously equates Obama as someone on the level of a Martin Luther King, Jr. or a Vaclav Havel. And, reaching for the height of absurdity, he then imagines Obama to be just like Thomas Jefferson. Yet, any perusal of these three men’s lives would show far more accomplishment, that they are men of far more consequence than Obama’s life has yet revealed. Obama appears as but a mere dabbler in achievement compared to Kuttner’s three men of history.

No, Kuttner hasn't fallen in love with Obama at all. You can REALLY tell that!

The syrup virtually drips from his pen.

Finally, Kuttner ends his piece with this laugher:

I could be wrong, of course. John Edwards, with his authentic populism, would also make a formidable nominee. Clinton, despite her flaws, has always done better than her detractors predict.

“Authentic populism”? John Edwards!? The man who owns HOW many palatial homes is an example of “authentic populism”?

Yeah, Bobbie, you "Could be wrong", indeed.

This guy is killin’ me.

Sadly, this is what passes for serious commentary in Boston.