Trouble in River City.

The Republicans are reduced to whining about the "liberal media" and how people from a "small town" aren't good enough. That sort of thing sounds good to a certain percentage of the population, but all those people are voting Republican anyway. To the independents, it sounds like bitterness and whining and sour grapes, and it turns them off. Nobody wants to be a member of the group that is always saying "They're all out to get us" except the people who are already in that group.

The Reps are completely off message, have entirely lost control of the narrative, and are tactically lashing out at anyone and everyone in a fury which they think is controlled and calculated, but which obviously is not -- in fact, it looks desperate and deranged. And the more visible the bible-thumpers become in their worship of Palin, the more normal people they alienate.

Obama ran an ad today that was perfect under the circumstances: attacking McCain on abortion. Because when all the hubub about Palin the person dies down, Palin the candidate, who holds some pretty far-out positions which haven't even been explored yet, comes to the foreground. There's going to be abortion, and creationism, and Alaska succeeding from the Union, and her alleged area of "expertise", energy -- she is a one-person target-rich environment. And that's when the real pain will begin. Obama has not run a good campaign overall -- as someone for whom things have always just sort of worked out, he tends to be passive -- but his passivity and good political sense are serving him perfectly in this case. He really does just need to run the clock out now and this baby is over. I still have no idea what he's going to do in office, but that he will get there is almost beyond challenge.