Tipsheet

A Word of Caution . . .

Jim Wooten writes today that panic is setting in for the Democrats.

That may be true, but at risk of being the skunk at the garden party, a word of caution is in order.

This thing is far, far from over.  If there's a risk, it's that McCain/Palin is peaking too soon.  The press loves to find a new narrative -- and would love nothing more than one that helps Barack.  With seven weeks to go, there's plenty of opportunity for them to launch an "Obama comes back! McCain on the ropes!" cycle, predicated, perhaps, on the kind of inevitable mistake that every campaign known to man makes at some point or other.

It's true, of course, that the media has "jumped the shark" with its coverage of Sarah Palin, and as a result, that voters give the reporting diminished attention.  But keep in mind that the press will magnify every mistake on the GOP side, and downplay even the most hamhanded Obama maneuvers -- liek the crass (and hopefully inadvertant) attacks on John McCain's war wounds.

It never seemed to me that things were as bad for Republicans as everyone thought in the spring or summer.  Let's not make the mistake of deciding that the tide has ineluctably turned our way now.