"From the Gut." Anyone got some Rolaids?

Hey Charles,

I know I've been a bit AWOL lately. Like Barack and Biden, I think I've been a bit "flummoxed" (CNN's word of the day yesterday!) by all this Palin coverage and Barack's message seeming to get drowned out by US Weekly's newest celebrity. If I'm a political strategist for the Dems, I'm not sure what I tell Barack other than to keep pressing on (and maybe give Hillary a call to commiserate!). Our good friend Tom Friedman thinks someone slipped some valium into Barack's coffee. In his column this morning, he says Obama has lost his "gut connection" with voters. I'm not sure whether I agree. I think the media simply finds a story and runs with it for as long as it has legs, and I'm not sure there's anything Barack could do to stem the tide.

In a way, this reminds me of the run-up to the Iraq War when the media focused on everything but the fact that WE'RE GOING TO WAR! This "lipstick on a pig" stuff is absolutely ludicrous. To quote Mark Halperin on CNN last night, "To spend even a minute on this expression, I think, is amazing and outrageous." Halperin went on to say that "this is a victory for the McCain campaign, in the sense that, every day, they can make this a pig fight in the mud. It's good for them for them because it's reducing Barack Obama's message even more." Here's the full interview.



Though no one who lived through Al Gore and John Kerry would find this type of thing surprising, I just find this all terribly disappointing. I remember thinking early in the primary season, that there was way too much time until election day and, by the end, Americans would be sick of their nominees. Now I'm thinking we're running OUT of time, and I'm troubled by the fact that the media seems willing to let the McCain camp run out the clock. It reminds me of when we were kids trying to play kickball in the schoolyard during recess. Suddenly, some kid kicks the ball in the woods and you spend the next half hour pulling prickers out of your socks! Maybe I'm overreacting, and maybe I'm not giving enough credit to the responsible journalism that is out there--like yesterday's Washington Post story on Palin's "per diem" allowance. Maybe I need to ride out the tide. (Unsolicited advice for Barack: just make sure to stay away from the windsurfing board!) Maybe I need to remind myself that this race was always going to be close and that if we named presidents in September, right now we'd be remembering President Dukakis.

Still, why do I feel like I'm on the Bridge to Nowhere?

Ryan