Steve Kornacki

As the 2012 race heats up, we'll be tracking the candidates' pander playbooks to ferret out the most interesting, egregious and hilarious suck-ups.

The Democratic base seems to have coalesced around two opposing realities: Either Obama is a cynical hack, or he's doing the best any human being could possibly do. Both positions lead to inaction, and both are wrong.

When someone suggests gender diversity as an asset of a job candidate, the reply is often "Oh no, I'm only interested in merit." Yet name some other quality needed for the position, and the idea of merit is assumed, not questioned.