August Blues

August is arguably where both Gore and Kerry gave up their leads and began the process of losing the election. With Gore, the debates were really the death knell of his candidacy; or at least gave Bush enough steam to steal the election in Florida. With Kerry, it was the Swift Boat Veterans for Lies that dramatically changed the election in August -- based primarily on the slowness of his reply and the media's unwillingness to report some of the inconsistencies and outright lies involved in the story.

Now come fears that Obama might be making the same mistake, by failing to deal with the absurdity of these incessant attack ads that he is too popular; and, um, taking a vacation (lest us forget the McCain Bush Redux relates him to a president who took more vacation time than any in recent history): http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/08/AR2008080803242_pf.html. I wonder if a year in which the American economy is sinking, environmental issues are coming to the fore (thanks to gas prices and Gore), the middle east is still a mess and there are real concerns of a decline in America's standing the world over can really come down to Obama being compared to Brittany Spears and Paris Hilton. The one thing that does seem clear is McCain is much less impressive on the stump than he was eight years ago. He seems tired, often confused and less than inspiring. Of course I thought even worse of Bush eight years ago, but at least he was younger, vibrant and played a cowboy "real good."