Spitting out my (green) tea when reading this stuff

Ah, the endless search by campaign reporters for the precise moment when they knew the candidate didn't have a chance to win.

For one CNN reporter, it was the moment -- when "his campaign was still young enough that Kerry would actually sit down with reporters in a relaxed setting" -- when Kerry asked for green tea in Dubuque Iowa.

When told the Holiday Inn only carried "Liptons," Kerry replied that would be fine, but for CNN's Candy Crowly, it was the dealbreaker for the Mass. senator:

"There's a very large disconnect between the Washington politicians and most of America and how they live. Bush was able to bridge that gap, and Kerry was not."

Such a brahmin. So elitist. Is he so out of touch with middle America that he would think those poor rubes in Dubuque would even know what green tea is?

But as Media Matters for America points out, it may be Crowley's condescension that is the real disconnect here.

But green tea may not be quite the highbrow delicacy Crowley seems to think. In fact, Lipton itself makes more than a half-dozen different varieties of green tea. Lipton's website even reveals that green tea accounts for 20 percent of all tea produced. And, according to Lipton's product locator, you can buy green tea in Dubuque, Iowa, at that gourmet market known as ... Kmart.

It's funny, George Bush is never accused of being "out of touch" even though he used Airforce One to fly him back to his favorite pillow every night, rather than sleep in a Holiday Inn out on the stump.

Thanks to Atrios for the link.

UPDATE: Digby has more on Candy Crowley's brand of penetrating journalism during this "incident."