Et tu, Dana Milbank?

For the most part Dana Milbank is a pretty straight-ahead political reporter, which made the following comments on last night's Countdown unacceptable:

I noted earlier this week, I had spent some time on the trail with both candidates. The Bush crowds love him. It is like a rock star. It‘s almost messianic. The Kerry folks, they like Kerry OK. But the only reason they really feel passionate about him is because they think he can beat Bush who they really hate. So even the Kerry folks only like him as a vessel for defeating Bush.

He might have added, in the interest of actual journalism, what is pretty common knowledge at this point: that the Shrub's campaign rally crowds are pre-screened to include zealots only.

Judging the mood of a crowd is a subjective exercise, but as punctuation, let me add this: