So, going back for a moment to Joe Klein's response to Bob Shrum's allegation that he functioned as a kind of unofficial advisor to John Kerry's 2004 presidential campaign: "There is a bright line here," Klein explained to TPM's Greg Sargent. "I don't give political advice. I give policy (and horse race) opinions." Now, at first glance this line might not seem so bright, given that "policy" and "horse race" make up an awful lot of what we usually think of as "politics," and opinion bleeds rather easily into advice. But perhaps a couple of concrete illustrations will clarify just what Klein means. "For example," Klein explains, "Shrum asked me at one point how I'd feel if Kerry voted against the $87 billion funding proposal for the troops. I said I didn't think it would be a good idea, since he voted for the war." To the casual observer it might seem that Klein was telling Shrum what he thought Kerry ought to do. But sophisticated parsing reveals that he was merely making an abstract analysis ("opinion") rather than explicitly recommending any particular course of action ("advice"). I found myself in a similar situation recently, when my three-year-old son expressed his intention to take a toy fire truck away from his little sister, and I said that he'd get in trouble if he did. I was not telling him what to do, but rather making a disinterested observation about the likely consequences of his actions. For those having trouble following, Klein offers another example: "So when Kerry asked me if he should fire Jim Jordan, I said, 'I have no idea what's going on inside your campaign and I don't really care. All I know is you're not nearly as clear or compelling as Howard Dean on the stump'--which I'd written several times--'and changing your campaign manager probably isn't going to help that.'" Here again, Klein is not, as it might first appear, advising against firing Jordan, he's merely offering his opinion that it's a bad idea--with the generous caveats that he really has no idea what he's talking about and doesn't actually care anyway. I'm tempted to advise Klein that he'd be better off keeping his mouth buttoned on this particular topic. But, like Klein, I don't really see myself as an advice-giver. Instead, I'll merely offer the opinion that explanations this lame only make things worse. --Christopher Orr