The subject was broached on Real Time with Bill Maher the night before last. Maher lamented that “the magic is gone” and asked if lefties were starting to have “buyer’s remorse” about President Obama. Liberals still like Obama, Maher said, but things have deteriorated to that point “after a giant fight” in a bad marriage in which “you’ve said so many nasty things that you know you’re never really going to get it back together.”

Yes, Obama and liberals will ultimately stay together because “who are you gonna date, Mitt Romney?,” he said. But Maher also believes that caving to the Republicans in the budget crisis has been a tipping point in Obama’s presidency, and he lost more liberal support by not fighting hard enough against the loonies. Then he asked whether Hillary Clinton would have made a better president than Obama because she’s tougher and scrappier than mild-mannered Barry. Maher quipped that Hillary has had experience “with difficult men,” etc.

I believe that Hillary probably would have played and occasionally won with the same cards that Obama has put on the table, but also that she would have stood up to the irrational right in a snarlier, less accommodating, eyeball-to-eyeball fashion. Yeah, that’s what I’m saying — I’d vote for her if I had it to do over again. I didn’t know then what I know now.