Goodness knows I should probably be going to sleep now to get ready to recite the life story of Sayat Nova bil arabiyya (Kaan ya makaan sha’ir ismuhoo Harutyun Sayatyan…), but I am fascinated–and gratified–by Obama’s flailing.  No one of Obama’s gaffes, errors or foolish statements would have been that damaging to his campaign at this point, and even all of them together are not fatal, but they are a series of political wounds–all of them self-inflicted–that threaten to bleed Obama of momentum, time and resources as he has to battle back against his own ineptitude.  The harder he fights to catch up to where he was before these errors, the more likely he will again overreach or misjudge a question or fire off a foolish speech.  Hillary and Edwards are laughing all the way to New Hampshire, and suddenly Richardson’s preposterous role as the “candidate of experience and foreign policy expertise” becomes much more relevant, as he becomes the logical replacement among the top three.  Richardson does not deserve this; he is, as my last column said, ridiculous and incompetent, but Obama’s confusion is his gain.  I assume resistance to another Clinton is strong enough in the party that an anti-Clinton candidate will win.  Obama was supposed to be in the process of becoming that candidate.  Perhaps this is the beginning of the unraveling of his campaign and the rise of the eventual non-Clinton nominee.