Politics and Culture

1. So far, my gut and the polls tell me that McCain has won today by having Obama go to Washington and sit at a meeting.

2. I wonder if McCain will use the picture of Obama and Bush sitting at a table in a commercial. The picture kind of prompts the question: "What's Obama doing there?"

3. If the deal had goes through, McCain may win the next few days. If the deal drags on, McCain's in a bad place. Does he stay or does he go out to campaign? The first few Obama rallies would seem out of place, but as McCain gets bogged down, people will see him as part of the problem.

This thing can break any number of ways and Obama has looked good crawling away from disaster.

4. As for the debate, McCain can do some damage because Obama doesn't know much and what he does know is either left-wing silliness or poll-driven mush.

5.

The Obama talking point that's quoted in most of those stories, about how a president needs to be able to do more than one thing at once, strikes me as devastatingly effective.

Here.

Yes, if by "more than one thing" you mean meeting with the prime minister of Australia and giving a speech at a fundraiser. During emergencies, you clear your calendar. Certainly, a boring debate, meeting "regular folks" at small-town diners, and cliched speeches can wait. As for Obama: if we needed to hear so much from the candidates, he should have asked for debates every week. He had that opportunity and passed it up.