Frustrated by three weeks of The Messiah losing ground, The Deciders have determined that they must spring into action to help carry their guy over the finish line.

First, Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post is one of the first to explicitly provide cover for the media to go ahead and officially be in the tank for Obama.

All campaigns fall short, but some fall far shorter than others. And it is a phony evenhandedness, comfortable for journalists but ultimately misleading, that equates these failures without measuring the grossness of their deviation from the standard of decency. In the 2008 race, and especially in the past few weeks, the imbalance has become unnervingly stark. Ideological differences aside, John McCain's campaign has been more dishonest, more unfair, more -- to use a word that resonates with McCain -- dishonorable than Barack Obama's.  -- Ruth Marcus, WaPo, 9-17-08.

Not to be outdone, Charlie Cook, one of the big time celebrity pundits, and a long time Democrat meme-setter, is trying to buoy the Obama camp's hopes and provide talking point for them to use.

That will likely happen at a time when the questions will be more pointed and more focused on the items that have been discovered as news organizations and Democratic opposition researchers comb her record.

But it's also true that McCain, who historically has been treated by the press better than most Republican presidential contenders, is now incurring the full wrath of a press corps that has decided that he has crossed the line, with ads and statements that do even greater violence to truth and fairness than is the norm.

It is a tone that some say has left McCain abandoning the "straight talk" ideals that made him such an attractive candidate in 2000.

No matter if what McCain and his campaign is saying and communicating is the truth or not, and whether or not he is abandoning his straight talk ideals. This will make it very difficult for them to get a message across, and the media refs are not likely to give him the benefit of the doubt on close calls.

But now the collapse of venerable financial institutions might well dominate public attention in mid-September. While relatively few are immediately affected by the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers and the fire sale of Merrill Lynch to Bank of America, the reverberations that such economic calamities cause are likely coming soon.

In addition, consumer confidence is further eroded, buyers are spooked, business expansion and increased hiring decisions are shelved, and the cycle continues its spiral downward.

While managing the economy is not exactly Obama's strong suit, it does pull the focus even further away from national security, McCain's strength. It would seem a better bet that this jump ball would be more likely go toward the team that hasn't been in power, and the edge would go to Obama.

There is no question that this election is still very much up in the air. The question is whether there is another momentum change in the making.

Posted by: eddiebear at 10:52 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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