You know, like those guys who are such effective politicians you don’t even realize that they’re politicians. Well, they are politicians. If they’ve ever got you thinking they’re just normal folks like you, the act has worked. And if they claim to be risking an electoral hit to do the right thing, that’s also designed to get votes. “Hey, it’s not popular, but I’ll do it. Unlike the other guy, who’s too concerned with your vote to do what’s right. (So vote for me).” Anyone who doesn’t understand this should read What Happened, the exposé by disaffected ex-Bush aide Scott McClellan, a book that lays out how everything in Washington is geared to the permanent campaign. Even not campaigning is a form of campaigning.

And so it is with healthcare. The televised (why?) talks gave us all another invaluable opportunity to watch the two sides trot out the same arguments they’ve been making for the last year. During those talks you might have caught sight of one Sen. John McCain (R, AZ) reminding us all that he is still alive by expressing (in a non-partisan, non-campaigning, concerned citizen sort of way, you understand) his severe disappointment that the draft bill gave sweeteners to all those states whose senators needed to be bought off. Exactly the kind of thing both he and Obama had said they would end. Back when they were campaigning. Obama’s response? “You know John, we’re not campaigning any more.” Except, of course, that we are. Permanently. “Not campaigning” is another way of saying that the other guy is a shameless populist, who, oh, by the way, did I forget to mention this, doesn’t deserve your vote.

In the circus we call politics, nothing is more amusing or transparent than when either side asserts moral superiority by claiming not to be doing this.