IF YOU'VE SPOKEN WITH someone who has swooned for Barack Obama, chances are you've heard them say the word "judgment" a lot. The Obama campaign's central talking point has devolved into, "You have to vote for Barack Obama because he has such wonderful judgment."

Back in the early days of the campaign, references to Obama's super-human judgment served as a shorthand for the fact that he knew enough not to get us involved in what the left considers the Iraqi quagmire. The Lioness of Tuzla, on the other hand, in spite of her many decades of making change at the highest levels of power, fell for the farrago of Bush administration lies and deceit and supported the Iraq war. Thus, in 2003 when he was but a humble state legislator, Barack Obama showed a moment of wonderful judgment--judgment so superb that even Hillary Clinton couldn't approach it.

I have no problem with the Obama campaign and its supporters using the term "judgment" to remind Democratic voters that Obama is more in line with the Democratic mainstream than his rival. My problem is that Obama supporters seem to have forgotten that "judgment" was just a codeword, and it was never really supposed to serve any other purpose beyond invoking the memory of Hillary Clinton's Iraq war vote.

It became clear to me a few weeks ago just how ludicrous the whole judgment issue has become for the typical Obama supporter. I was exchanging emails with one of Obama's law school classmates who, like all the other Obama classmates that I spoke with, was quite fond of Obama. I asked him if he could send me a written testimonial on Obama. He agreed.

Obama's classmate began his statement by saying that he didn't know Obama very well at all back in law school, but what he did know he liked. Somewhere near the end of the message, he took a detour to make sure he praised Obama's judgment.

In some ways, this was an impressive testament to the way modern campaigns, just by osmosis, can get their supporters to regurgitate the campaigns' talking points. Of course, the praise for Obama's judgment in this context made no sense. I, too, went to law school. And I can't imagine a circumstance where I would come to admire a fellow student's judgment, especially when the fellow student in question was a casual acquaintance. I couldn't see myself saying back in my law school days, "Gosh, the way that 28 year-old outlined those cases before attending Civil Procedure really showed judgment. Presidential judgment!"

When talking about politics and candidates, the term "judgment" doesn't seem to have a proper place. I've known Mitt Romney for 14 years, and served as his occasional driver during his 1994 senate campaign. I'm a tremendous admirer of his. I've seen him show an exemplary temperament, an extraordinary array of skills, and great human kindness. But if someone asked me about his judgment, I wouldn't know what to say. He held the line on taxes in Massachusetts and shined some much needed light on Harvard's cloning plans, but were those things "judgment" or just a politician doing what I considered the right thing? I guess there was one time when I was driving Romney and he told me to hit the toll lane on the left rather than the one on the right; it turned out the one on the left did move faster. While that was a superior judgment call, I wouldn't put it at the top of Romney's résumé.