"Yo Obama, Hillary, would it be too much to ask for a little leadership?"

Markos:

Keith Olbermann and Newsweek's Richard Wolffe wax poetic on "leadership", and lack thereof from the two Democratic frontrunners with the biggest media soapboxes:

WOLFFE: [T]he Democrats have ramped up their rhetoric. But predicting a turnaround among Democrats is like predicting a turnaround in Iraq. It‘s always six months away.

And in this case the rhetorical lines are drawn around what happens in February. The White House clearly going out there today saying, “We‘re about to lay-off all these civilian workers. It‘s going to be apocalyptic.” And Democrats are trying to call their bluff.

But what matters here are the independent voters who swung so heavily behind Democrats in 2006. Where will they go? Is the White House going to be effective in changing their minds? It doesn‘t look like it right now.

OLBERMANN: But do the independent people know where the Democrats are just making a list of this today. Murtha and Dave Obey suggested this today and had this line that we just heard. Harry Reid said no blank check. Dan Inouye in the Senate is pushing for a revised gentler version of the new bridge bill. [I]s there one Democrat position on Iraq funding?

WOLFFE: Well, no, there isn‘t. And actually, you‘ve got to include Nancy Pelosi, who says the troops will always get what they need, which is the bottom line for the White House. They think the Democrats are always going to blink because of that now. I think the real leadership on this, if there‘s any hope for Democrats on this, is going to come from the presidential candidates.

Because remember, this whole thing is going to blow up once we basically know who the nominee is. And that is going to be handed to them to deal with. Could they provide some leadership? Maybe. They‘re not going to find a congressional strategy. But they could give a message.

Both Obama and Clinton like to talk about leadership, but they could show us what their style of leadership would look like if, you know, they led. It's truly like beating a dead horse, but the most frustrating thing about this primary race hasn't been the hyper partisans and their flame wars (though that's been bad enough), it's been the lack of real leadership from the frontrunners. Talk is cheap. Action matters. And it's pretty bad that we can't get out of Obama and Clinton what seems to come very naturally out of Chris Dodd.

Barack Obama