David Broder is continuing his heralded style of wank-o-rific pontification in tomorrow’s Washington Post. If you were wondering whom the School of Higher Broderism is going to endorse in the 2008 primary elections, you now have your answer: John McCain and Hillary Clinton. How exciting. How inevitable.

When the Clintons arrived in Washington DC in their turnip truck, it was David Broder and Sally Quinn that decided they had no class. But, I guess over time Broder came to appreciate Hillary’s many charms. She’s been accepted into the Club. Maybe she earned it by winning over the Manhattan elites and securing herself a well carpetbagged Senate seat. Who knows?

But that Obama kid? He’s still on the outs.

Before I even delve into the particulars here, I have something to share with all the Deaniacs. This is a warning…you aren’t going to like this. This is how he summarizes your movement.

Do you recall the Howard Dean boom of 2003? It existed mostly in the minds of political reporters looking for something to write about — and it collapsed once voters became engaged.

Yeah. All those meet-ups and all that internet activity and all that energy ‘existed mostly in the minds of political reporters (other than David Broder, presumably).’

Wanker.

Broder is predicting the same fate for Obama (and, hey, he could be right). Obama might actually be no more than the figment of non-Broderist political commentators.

On the Democratic side, which commands greater interest because the Democrats dominate in almost every poll on 2008 prospects [ed note: uh, no], the question of the day (for Broderists) is “What’s happening to Barack Obama?”

What indeed? Ready for a cheap shot?

Obama had the bad luck to be the last of the seven speakers, and the program was well behind schedule by then. He began his remarks with the comment “I’ve got a vote at noon, so I’m going to have to cut this short” — suggesting that this audience was hardly his priority.

Yeah, poor judgment on Obama’s part to explain to his audience that voting is a higher priority to him than missing votes. Typical sniping from the all-wise Brahmin. But look at him slobber all over the ever serious senator from Delaware.

By contrast, the previous speaker, Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware, played the crowd like a virtuoso, lowering his voice to a confidential whisper to brief them on his views on Iraq — you could have heard a pin drop — then bringing the audience of beefy construction workers to their feet with a shouted pledge that, “When I’m president, we will spend what it takes to give our veterans the health care they deserve.”

I’m glad Biden gave a well-received speech, but that is ridiculous. And so is this.

Obama never varied from a conversational monotone and, unlike Biden, expressed no gratitude to labor for past support and barely mentioned the issues of minimum-wage legislation, prevailing wage guarantees and bills to strengthen union bargaining rights that had made up the bulk of the speeches of other candidates.

The judgment of the California delegate I met walking out was: “He left me kind of flat.”

But, this was supposed to be about Hillary Clinton and John McCain. I don’t know if you have noticed, but both of these candidates have been struggling in the polls recently. In fact, John McCain isn’t even the front runner anymore. Rudy Guiliani is clubbing him in the polls. But none of that matters to Broder.

On the Republican side, the unsettled picture allows for one “new star” after another — first Mitt Romney, then Rudy Giuliani, now Fred Thompson — to emerge as a threat to Arizona Sen. John McCain, who keeps piling up endorsements from across the GOP spectrum and deepening an organization that already looks formidable.

What the hell, it’s a Republican nomination, so what does FOX’s most recent poll say?

Uh, it says:

Rudy Guiliani 36%
John McCain 20%

Better get some more endorsements, John.

Meanwhile, look at how fabulous Hillary is.

But Obama’s problem, for now, is not Joe Biden, who is searching for his own footing in the race. His problem is Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, who has a far more solid campaign structure — and the lead in the polls. Her speech to the unionists, like her appearance at the health-care forum, was a demonstration of her deep familiarity with the issues — and her personal and political bonds with many in the audience.

In her high-energy performance, Clinton went even deeper into the details of pending labor legislation than did Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut, who has 26 more years of experience in Congress, and she had them on their feet as often as Biden did.

It’s just spring training, but it’s pretty clear who has the best pitching staff.

So, to recap…Obama had to cut short his speech to go vote. It was not so great a speech. People felt it was flat. Something is wrong with Obama. He may be just the figment of our imaginations. Joe Biden is man of the people. John McCain is going to win once the people get engaged in the process. Hillary Clinton has the best pitching staff in major league baseball.

Thank you, Broder.