Mayhill Fowler. The name sounds like a character from a Jane Austen novel. And in fact the budding blogger even acts like one. Remember Austen's Emma Woodhouse? With too much time on her hands, the vain and affluent resident of Highbury meddles in the lives of her friends, thinking she can improve them. But her careless manipulations end up creating only havoc and misery.

Mayhill Fowler wants to be a player in the current political struggle for the future of our troubled nation. So she landed herself a position as a contributor to the Huffington Post. As reported in that blog, she is also a haphazard donor to wildly divergent candidates in our high-stakes presidential primaries. She has contributed not only to Obama and Hillary, but also to arch conservative Fred Thompson, in her words "as a show of solidarity for a fellow Tennessean." Say again?

As donor to Barack Obama's campaign, Ms. Mayhill was granted admission to a private fundraiser not open to the press. But between the salad and the main course, as it were, she changed hats into a cub reporter looking for a first scoop. As luck would have it, a killer story fell into her lap. Obama answered a question about his campaign chances with working class people in Pennsylvania. His quick answer was that years of lost jobs have caused many of these folks to be bitter and cling to their guns and religion. Let's get real, he was not criticizing guns and religion, but pointing out in short-hand that Republican claims on them are used as hot-button issues against Democrats. This provided an opportunity for mischief.

Mayhill Fowler faced an ethical choice: Should she keep the comments private, owing allegiance to her role as an Obama supporter, or should she publish and criticize them in her blog as an ambitious cub reporter? As the incident is now known as "Bittergate", we know she published them. Ms. Fowler and her defenders say she was all along motivated by good intentions. Hmm…

Mr. Obama has repeatedly demonstrated that he can articulate the aspirations and frustrations of the average citizen. But he's not perfect and he's certainly not Superman. His inelegant but truthful "gaffe" has been distorted and fully exploited by the Hillary and McCain camps. Gaffes are a dime a dozen in public utterances by Hillary and McCain, and Obama will certainly overcome this moment and probably still gain the Democratic presidential nomination. But, thanks to Mayhill Mayhem - or was it Foul-up Fowler? - Obama faces an even more hellish and perilous road to the presidency.

The media have made much of the art, or artlessness, of reporting in the new political blogosphere. But it's also a story of the eternally conflicting motivations and ethical choices of human behavior.

Will McCain slay McAbel in November? Who knows, but if he does, Jane Austen told us a long time ago just how it could happen.