One of the most frustrating aspect of politics circa 2006-2008 is the way liberal pundits have picked up the bad habits they once criticized in conservatives — from content-free accusations of media bias to slipshod factual standards.

Bob Somerby points out the most recent example: liberal bloggers revising their interpretations of the first presidential debate to conform to an exaggerated character-driven narrative (McCain was “small and angry”, acted like Obama was “on par with dog shit”, etc.). Sound familiar? It’s exactly what happened in 2000 when (as Somerby has documented) pundits who originally declared Al Gore the winner of the first debate got caught up in the “sighing” meme and ended up deciding he was the loser.

Things went from tragedy to farce, however, when liberal pundits started quoting biologists about dominance behaviors in primates. This is exactly the sort of manufactured psychodrama that killed Al Gore. But now that the situation has flipped liberals don’t seem concerned any more.