Gotcha, Mittens.

In case you were too busy enjoying your Saturday night, here's the soundbite that has the Beltway pundit crowd a-Twitter...



Mitt Romney, meet Sue Lowden.



She learned the hard way about the side effects of "foot-in-mouth disease".

But wait, why are we even talking about this? Why does this matter? How does this elevate the tone of the campaign?

Let me explain.

Just how long have we had to hear Mitt Romney claim he has "real economic experience"? And how long have we had to endure endless media blathering about Romney being so "electable" because he supposedly has "the right message on the economy"? As much as I'd personally like for him to be exposed simply due to the (lack of) merits of his economic policies alone, today's media orchestrated circus just doesn't work like that... And that's what Romney was counting upon.

But just as "Tea Party, Inc.", took advantage of Sue Lowden exposing her own politically fatal flaws last year, Romney is undoing his own political house of cards and allowing his opponents a great opportunity to use this moment to highlight the building narrative of "out-of-touch poor lil' rich guy Mittens". And just as Lowden exposed herself as clueless on any of the real issues impacting working class families, Romney is now doing the same.

DNC officials, starting with press secretary Melanie Roussell, began tweeting a #What10kbuys hashtag to amplify their message, with items like a year of daycare for the average family. Within less than a half hour of the debate’s end, it was one of the top trending topics not just in Iowa, or in the United States, but around the world, according to Twitter.

“I’ll bet you ten thousand beers Mitt lives to regret that $10K bet line,” Democratic strategist Paul Begala tweeted.

The episode recalled Romney’s “corporations are people” moment at an Iowa event, which Democrats pounced on in similar fashion. Romney responded to that episode, which many observers interpreted as a gaffe at the time, by doubling down on the line and using it again on the trail and in his official economic plan.

I'll bet you 10,000 blog diaries that Mitt Romney can no longer hide his disdain for policies that help working class families or his allegiance to failed "trickle down economics" nonsense behind a slick ad campaign.