Reports from the trail indicate that Barack Obama has been off his game, apparently having been beaten into a lifeless campaigning torpor by the veritable waterboarding that George Stephanopoulos and Charlie Gibson put him through last week. Even noted Obama-phile Joe Klein has taken note of the new and not improved champion of hope and change, actually mixing in a little criticism with his typical sycophancy:

“Obama seems either bummed or pissed or exhausted. He could be near death and still be a pretty good speaker, but he's very much off his game right now.”

How bad have things gotten for Obama on the trail? Check out this gaffe that the AP captured:

"You have a real choice in this election. Either Democrat would be better than John McCain," Obama said to cheers from a rowdy crowd in central Pennsylvania. Then he said: "And all three of us would be better than George Bush."

I seem to recall a wise man once saying that when Obama lacks a teleprompter, the stuff that comes out just isn't that good. Oh yeah – I was that wise man. Anyway, since Obama appears intent on basing his general election campaign on the theme that a McCain victory would be tantamount to a third term for George W. Bush, this latest flub shows he can't stay on message for even the most basic stuff when a teleprompter isn't lighting the way.

Or, as one of my favorite bloggers Tom Maguire put it, “I love these ‘Ooops, I accidentally said what I actually believe’ gaffes.”