Every single one of us feels it. Repeatedly. Over and over. We all FEEL the same thing.

McCain takes a dig at the O for, say, voting "Present."

As our blood boils, we are all yelling at the TV screen: "Barrack, hit him on this. Don't let this bastard get away with this shit. Hammer him on the fact that he has missed hundreds of Senate votes including the vote on the GI Bill!"

Then Obama lets it slide. And we all feel that he missed the chance. We feel disappointed. We feel robbed of a chance to feel that justice was done.

After the debate, Olberman asked Rachel if McCain had slipped some punches. Rachel gave a very savvy answer about how in a debate one has to instantly make a determination: do I actually accomplish more by rebutting or by letting it slip away. Excellent point.

Then Rachel did what we all do. She expressed her personal frustration at Obama giving McCain credit for fighting the torture ban. Rachel is 100% right on this. This is PRECISELY what we all feel dozens of times in these debates. The live blog threads are full of moments where one of us vents: "Obama missed one there! Why can't he nail McCain on X? Or Y? Or Z?"

And Rachel forgot for just a moment what we all forget as we vent.

Obama won by letting McCain off the hook on torture!

Think of it. Suppose Obama nailed McCain on torture. He'd be right and we'd feel good.

But John  McCain is a Viet Nam vet and a guy who did heavy time as a POW. Obama has not served in uniform. Who is going to win that argument? Do you think the FACTS and the JUSTICE of the situation will let Barrack win that one?

Of course not. Barrack gushes over McCain's stance on torture ... and wins the debate by lots of points!

Barrack often does not give his supporters what they most want to hear. And, though an African American man with a name that sounds Arab, he is leading the POW by 12 points! It's time we supporters clearly GOT IT: he is not out to give us what we want to hear. He is out to win!

Meanwhile, McCain gave his supporters red meat tonight. And got hammered.

Look. The pundits never seem to get it. Buchanan is still saying McCain "won on points." CNN pundits talk about Obama having been "flat" all night. Yadda, yadda, yadda. Meanwhile, Obama won big.

At least we, his supporters, should begin to get clear on this! Barrack is winning BECAUSE HE IS DOING IT HIS WAY! If he ever starts meeting our emotional needs, he'll probably start to lose.

Now, there is another side to this, and it's pretty important. It's something you'd better get used to.

When he is President, Barrack is going to frustrate you!

You might as well get used to it. Barrack is NOT a partisan progressive. And he is more than a pragmatist.

The essence of Barrack's political persona is mediation. Negotiation. Transcendence. Reconciliation. That is what he believes in and what he is out to do. He is out to disarm conflict, find common ground, and build a synthetic consensus. He is a walking Hegelian.

This is how he built a powerful following. It is how he beat Hillary. It is how he is beating McCain.

And we'd better understand that it will be how he governs. he will mediate and compromise and make deals. And WE will be frustrated by this. He is far from the ideologue many progressives think he is.

Personally, I am very glad about this, even though I know I will be frustrated by the man. Here''s why.

America today is a hollow shell of itself. It has no wealth, no power, no clout based on anything other than global memory of its past. In the looming economic meltdown, the only thing that keeps America afloat is the tolerance and patience of the people who carry its debt.

I'll put it quite simply.

Only a master NEGOTIATOR has any chance of weaving a transitional course through the monsoons ahead. Only a MEDIATOR is going to be able to shift labor and trade policies back to the American worker and away from China and Japan and Europe and India ... and SIMULTANEOUSLY convince China and Japan and Europe to carry our debt long enough to let us rebuild our economy. The economic survival of the nation depends on a President who as one of world history's great consensus builders can rebuild America's standing in a political, economic, and military world which has had abundant experience of its bankruptcy.

This is why I believe Obama is the best possible person to serve as President in our time of national crisis. Obama is exactly what we need to remain alive as a nation.

But he won't do that by massaging our political erogenous zones. In fact, he will frustrate us. Many times.

Do you get it?