Required Reading

1) From Rasmussen Reports, "The Daily Presidential Tracking Poll" by Scott Rasmussen

Over the weekend, I was having an impromptu conversation with the McCain campaign's deputy director of online communications. During our chat, I predicted, "Your guy will be within two points of Obama in the Rasmussen tracking poll by the end of the week."

I mention this anecdote not merely to highlight the tantalizing list of glittering political all-stars that I habitually hobnob with, but also to illustrate how the fact that Obama was damaging his campaign narrative with his serial flip-flops was easily foreseeable. Lo and behold, in today's Rasmussen tracking poll, McCain has pulled to within two points.

Obviously this has nothing to do with anything the McCain campaign has done. In spite of the McCainiacs' best efforts, balanced-budget-mania has yet to sweep the nation. And the candidate's over-the-top disparaging of social security hasn't served as a bracing helping of straight talk that has energized his campaign. In order to preserve whatever dwindling chances I have of someday getting a seat on the Straight Talk Express, I will only mention in passing this week's cloddish efforts of campaign surrogates Carly Fiorina and Phil Gramm.

A few days ago, we discussed how this campaign will boil down to Obama vs. Not Obama. Not Obama had a very good week.

2) From Real Clear Politics, "What's Wrong With Senator Obama" by Bob Beckel.

Beckel's article takes a sympathetic look at his 14 year-old son's plight. In short, the lad has stopped swooning:

I was a little surprised last week when my son asked me, "What's wrong with Senator Obama?" I asked why. "Because he sounds different", he says. Thinking the kid was referring to Obama's recent moves to the center on some issues I tell him every candidate for president repositions for the general election. My son gives me one of those teenage 'what planet are you on' looks and says, "never mind."

It took awhile but I realized my point about Obama's repositioning on Iraq, FISA, etc meant nothing to my kid. All he knew was that the "Obama of Summer" was somehow different than the Yes We Can "Obama of Winter" - and it bothered him. To my kid it wasn't a question of issues, but a perception that somehow Obama had changed. As Barack Obama learned this week it is a perception shared by thousands of his supporters who do understand the issues and, unlike my son, can vote.

Does Obama really sound different or are people just hearing him differently? The uplift he provided earlier in the campaign season was so bracing precisely because it was new. But as Achilles discovered with his shield, nothing can stay new forever. We conservatives began months ago to mock Obama for labeling every issue that wasn't to his liking a "distraction." All he wanted to talk about was Hope/Change.

But the problem with politics is that you have to make all sorts of Hobson's choices that will escape the Hope/Change paradigm. For instance, do you beat back the environmentalists and make them accept common sense policies, or do you tell the rest of the country to lump it and enjoy its $4/gallon gas? On another level, do you talk common sense about Iraq and enrage the left or do you remain committed to snatching defeat from the jaws of victory?

In other words, politics has to be conducted on a lower plane than the one Obama comfortably operates on.

3) From the Washington Post, "Donors Asked to Give For Two" by Matthew Mosk

Forget about the unforgivable cheesiness of Barack Obama raising money for Hillary Clinton while he has his own pressing matters to tend to. (Is this indicative of the way he'll stand up for American interests as president?) More interesting are the dark hints being proffered by Obama command central regarding the status of the campaign's once historic fundraising:

In a conference call Wednesday night, a top Obama adviser told members of the senator's national finance committee that "there's a huge amount of money we need to raise, and we have to be aware of that," according to one person on the call, who said the campaign, combined with the Democratic National Committee, hopes to have raised $450 million by Election Day.