The big media is of course completely in the tank for Obama, so much so that it is not thought disqualifying that Gwen Ifill will moderate tonight's vice presidential debate despite having penned a book praising Obama and timed for release to Inauguration Day. The MSM is acting as Obama's offensive line, blocking every bad story about him from the front pages or top of the news and somehow even managing to prop up Joe Biden, who most recently declared that FDR addressed the nation on television at the time of the stock market crash of 1929.

John McCain has a wind in his face, but he had a much stronger one blowing at him a year ago when his campaign was broke and all but dead. McCain was given a gift by Nancy Pelosi on Monday when the House Speaker let her election season mask slip and let rip with a snarl that startled even her allies in the House and signaled that the would be Triumvers of Obama, Reid and Pelosi will not be reaching across the aisle if Obama makes it to 1600.

McCain is a nationalist, and the vast majority of Americans are not of the hard-left variety represented by the leadership of the Obama coalition. That vast majority are center-right, and they have 30 plus days in which to first vent at the state of the market and then assess the men who would lead them. "Not Ready To Lead" has been Team McCain's mantra about Obama from mid-summer forward, and it remains the cloud over Obama in many minds, while many more simply worry about his hard-left views. John McCain led from the center on the financial rescue plan, and Obama beat a retreat to the tall grass until it was safe to come back to D.C. to vote yes, a perfect display of the choice in front of the country.

Four points down with 34 days and three debates to go against the hardest left nominee in history. If you had told John McCain that was his choice last summer, he'd have taken it in a second, and with very good reason.