For the first time in his long, illustrious, really long career, U.S. Sen. Dan Inouye wasn't able to deliver his home state to his preferred presidential candidate.

Who could have imagined that?

Inouye served up Hawai'i's delegates to a run of Democratic presidential losers, from Walter Mondale to Michael Dukakis to Al Gore. Inouye said Hawai'i would vote the way he told us to vote and we did. Unfailingly. Predictably.

Who could have ever predicted that a keiki o ka 'aina would be running such a momentous campaign for president and Daniel K. Inouye wouldn't be standing in support of his fellow born-and-raised Hawai'i man?

We thought Inouye was a homer.

Inouye thought we were obedient.

Things have changed dramatically in our town and if Inouye isn't careful, Hillary Clinton's faltering campaign might knock some height off his pedestal.

Inouye might not have seen this coming when he announced his endorsement of Clinton a year ago. Barack Obama's campaign was shining with promise then but had yet to take on the rocket blast of momentum it has now. If Inouye knew then who would be the clear front-runner, would he have still stood behind Clinton? He might have remained detached, as Daniel Akaka has done. Maddeningly true to form, Akaka likes to stay everybody's friend.

Inouye, meanwhile, has been making enemies by refusing to give his superdelegate vote to the candidate so clearly favored by Hawai'i Democrats. Then Inouye added insult to injury by taking a cheap shot at Punahou.

"If you ask the people in Hawai'i what they know about Barack Obama, I think the honest answer is, 'Very little,' " Inouye said in an Advertiser interview. "He went to school in Hawai'i but he went to Punahou, and that was not a school for the impoverished.

"I don't hold it against anyone who is a Punahou grad. It's a fine school. I would say one of the finest in the United States. But to suggest that Punahou maybe set his life plan in place, I find it very interesting."

Look, we all know that "Where you wen grad?" is a complex, sometimes loaded socio-economic question in Hawai'i. Sometimes it's asked when someone is trying to place you. Sometimes it's asked when someone is trying to put you in your place.

Inouye tried to use Obama's Punahou background as a way to out-local him, to lessen any Son of Hawai'i credibility he might have. It was dismissive and petty.

It was that reverse-snobbery that only works among losers and should be beneath a man of his stature, though clearly his stature is waning if he could be so out of step with Hawai'i voters.

Lee Cataluna's column runs Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach her at 535-8172 or lcataluna@honoluluadvertiser.com.