Classic Frank Rich

The venerable Sunday columnist for the New York Times tells us that we know very little about McCan't, that the press is largely to blame for it, and that he's really a "confused" candidate suffering from short-term memory loss, and who comes to his positions only after it's painfully obvious how the rest of us feel. In other words, he's no maverick.

Choice quote:

Most Americans still don’t know, as [Talking Points Memo editor Josh] Marshall writes, that on the campaign trail “McCain frequently forgets key elements of policies, gets countries’ names wrong, forgets things he’s said only hours or days before and is frequently just confused.” Most Americans still don’t know it is precisely for this reason that the McCain campaign has now shut down the press’s previously unfettered access to the candidate on the Straight Talk Express.

Still, Rich has characterized the Obama campaign as "excessively genteel," and this is troubling to anyone familiar enough with the Rove-style tactics exercised by the Bush (and now McCan't) campaigns. I want to see Obama mix it up more, employ less of the steely coolness he's so good at and bust out more of the razor-sharp wit we all know he has.