Forget "my Muslim faith." The key line is "these guys love to throw a rock and hide their hand."

Jim Lindgren takes a sharp closer look at yesterday's Obama-Stephanopoulos colloquy:

[A]s Obama sees himself slipping (temporarily) behind, he is willing make unproven charges that he probably wouldn't have been willing to say a week ago: that these guys are throwing rocks and hiding their hands.

And Obama would probably have gotten away with it if Stephanopoulos had been willing to accept that. But Stephanopoulos pushed back and forced Obama to back down, Obama finally admitting: "Well, what I'm saying is that he [McCain] hasn't suggested ... that I'm a Muslim. And I think that his campaign's upper echelons have not, either."

So when McCain's campaign manager is raised, Obama says, "these guys love to throw a rock and hide their hand." But when Stephanopoulos points out that he has no basis for making such a reckless charge, Obama admits that they haven't thrown rocks on this issue.

It's telling, then -- isn't it? -- that Obama brought up the attacks on Sarah Palin:

OBAMA: Now, well, look. Listen. You and I both know that the minute that Governor Palin was forced to talk about her daughter, I immediately said that's off limits. And...

STEPHANOPOULOS: But John McCain said the same thing about questioning your faith.

OBAMA: And what was the first thing the McCain's campaign went out and did? They said, look, these liberal blogs that support Obama are out there attacking Governor Palin.

And you're doing something that they didn't do. The McCain campaign -- as Obama had it -- merely pointed at the liberal blogs and said it was terrible to attack Palin that way. But the McCain campaign never accused Obama of starting it. It accepted his assertion that he didn't do it and didn't think it should be done.

Now, talking to Stephanopoulos, Obama is saying that the McCain campaign really did start it and is hiding it. What is the justification for that charge? A guilty conscience? When he says the McCain camp likes to throw the rock and hide their hand, it makes me suspect that the Obama campaign is throwing rocks and hiding their hands!

You and I both know that the minute that Governor Palin was forced to talk about her daughter, I immediately said that's off limits.

The minute... immediately... Yes, you have to be quick to hide your hand after you've throw a rock.

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Bonus video: "I didn't do it."