Frank Rich is back from vacation. The rest has done him good! In today's NYT op-ed he starts by pointing out the absurdity of the constant obsession with Obama's poll numbers and reminds that historically those numbers have meant very little. He spends the rest of the piece showing that so far the campaign has played just the way the Republicans have wanted it ... a referendum on Senator Obama giving a total pass on who John McCain really is.
So why isn’t Obama romping? The obvious answer — and both the excessively genteel Obama campaign and a too-compliant press bear responsibility for it — is that the public doesn’t know who on earth John McCain is.
Mr. Rich uses the Pew Research Survey showing that 48 percent of Americans feel that they are hearing too much about Barack Obama while only 26 percent of the people feel that way about John McCain as his proof of a knowledge deficiency.
The "fairy tale" image of a war hero with a "maverick" attitude that stands up to Washington has been left alone. He calls out that it's past time for people to know the real John McCain.
The article makes a great primer on the many inconsistencies between the man and the myth. It should be required reading for anyone who needs to play catch-up.