Dispatches from Delaware Secret Undisclosed Location

I have a report from my secret undisclosed location. I had visitors. David Plouffe (Obama campaign manager) and Steve Schmidt (Rovian acolyte and senior adviser to McCain) were here. Dana Milbank wrote about it. So did I!

1. Steve Schmidt does not seem to like Sarah Palin.
2. Schmidt confirmed:
a) Joe Lieberman was McCain's pick but the party threatened a floor fight over abortion.
b) He supports same-sex marriage.
c) He was the one who didn't let Palin speak on election night. He said one of the most important parts of election night is conceding the loss and acknowledging the legitimacy of the process. He seemed to suggest either 1) Palin would not be conciliatory 2) she would be launching her next campaign instead of ending this one.
3. Plouffe was not crazy about the Clinton pick though he says he likes her now.
4. Plouffe and Obama are personality twins. They are both calm, measured, and funny and have the same vocal cadence and hand gestures. Either that or the campaign was, in fact, THE BORG.
5. Plouffe does a great job of why tackling energy and health care is not "taking on too much" and how they're integral to economic recovery. So why the administration ever lets Tim Geithner and Larry Summers in public is a mystery to me.
6. Mark Penn said, in Iowa, of the plethora of young volunteers who came out for the Jefferson-Jackson dinner for Obama "It looks like Facebook. Facebook doesn't caucus." HAHAHAHA. Why does that man get paid millions?

ETA: I suppose Schmidt gets some points for being conciliatory and certainly McCain's performance at the debates show that they were pretty resigned to a staggering defeat. When he referred to "that guy" you can imagine he felt a lot like the Yankees who were down by 20 runs in the 9th inning to the Indians. You want to give up. HOWEVER, if they were aware they were losing and had so much respect for the process, why did they go ahead with the kitchen sink strategy that included stoking racist fires with "pallin' around with terrorists" and the ACORN silliness, and the birth certificate madness they did little quash? Did they not think that just MIGHT interfere with the ability of the President to govern? And, frankly, I'm sick of them blaming "an unpopular president." He wasn't unpopular because he was wearing the wrong brand of jeans or something. He was unpopular because he had horrible policies informed by a flawed philosophy. A set of policies and a philosophy shared by the party as a whole and John McCain as a Republican! It's not the administration you should be blaming, it is your party's failed philosophy!