THIS MODERN WORLD

An amusing though unverified anecdote from a friend of mine:

Just read about champagne-swilling Michelle on your blog, and it reminded me of this story a guy told me recently. He was working as a sous chef in a very upscale locally-grown organic spa/hotel/restaurant, and a local Republican running for something gave a fundraising dinner. His people specifically requested champagne and caviar – neither of which were really part of the restaurant’s aesthetic. (Champagne, for instance, has to come from France, and these people wouldn’t even settle for various sparkling wines that came from down the road.) So they bent over backwards and got the stuff, and then the GOP guy gets up and as an opener reads the menu out loud and says, “I wish I could say I feel comfortable in these circumstances, but I’m not a champagne and caviar kinda guy.” The overtaxed staff was not amused. This to me is the GOP in a nutshell: insisting on champagne and caviar in order to point out how they’re just not comfortable with stuff like that.

Dick Morris:

But as Obama surged into a more or less permanent lead in October, animated by the financial crisis, he has assumed many of the characteristics of an incumbent. Every voter asks himself one question before he or she casts a ballot: Do I want to vote for Obama? His uniqueness, charisma and assertive program have so dominated the dialogue that the election is now a referendum on Obama.

As Obama has oscillated, moving somewhat above or somewhat below 50 percent in all the October polls, his election likely hangs in the balance. If he falls short of 50 percent in these circumstances, a majority of the voters can be said to have rejected him. Likely a disproportionate number of the undecideds will vote for McCain.

But don’t write Obama off. His candidacy strikes such enthusiasm among young and minority voters that there is still a chance that a massive turnout will deliver the race to the Democrats. None of the polling organizations has any experience with — or model for — so massive a turnout, especially among voters notorious for staying at home. But the primaries proved that these young and minority voters will not stay home this time, but will vote for Obama. The effect of this increased vote is hard to calculate, but it may be enough to offset the undecideds who will vote for McCain.

(Emphasis added.) Via Greenwald, who notes:

Still, it’s just staggering to ponder the amount of reality-denial (or deliberate reality-distortion) needed to urge that Obama, though a real long shot, shouldn’t be “written off,” because there’s still a small chance that he might pull it out. It also enables Morris to claim victory either way — heroically so if McCain wins (“I predicted undecideds would break for him”) and also if Obama wins (“I warned that he shouldn’t be written off”). To a Fox News viewer, that comes from the most insightful and prescient political observer in the country.

Dear Editor:

In this morning’s edition, you feature a letter from Cliff Johns of Louisville, Kentucky, in which Barack Obama is referred to not by name, but only as “The One.”

The intended derision may not be immediately apparent to those who do not regularly listen to talk radio, but this is a disrespectful term derived from Rush Limbaugh and his cohorts, meant to imply that Obama is a delusional figure who sees himself, literally, as the Messiah.

I assume you would not print a letter which referred to Senator McCain as “Old Cancer Face,” but this is effectively what you have allowed Mr. Johns to do in reference to Senator Obama, and you probably owe your readers an apology.

Sincerely,

Tom Tomorrow

(Send a letter to the editor by e-mailing letters@nytimes.com).

Bill Kristol has awakened from the coma he’s apparently been in, with some timely last minute advice for the McCain campaign of a month or two ago:

Situation not-so-excellent. Time for McCain to attack — or, rather, finally to make his case.

The heart of that case has to be this: reminding voters that when they elect a president, they’re not just electing a super-Treasury secretary or a higher-level head of Health and Human Services. They’re electing a commander in chief in time of war.

Yes, if only John McCain had ever thought to mention this! He should also be sure to bring up the fact that he was once a POW.

The McCain campaign intends, I gather, to return to the commander in chief theme with an event in Florida Wednesday showcasing former secretaries of state and retired senior military officers. But why not showcase young Iraq vets instead? These young soldiers and marines can testify eloquently to the success of the surge that John McCain championed, and to the disaster and dishonor that would have followed Barack Obama’s preferred path of withdrawal.

So let me get this straight, Bill Kristol — you’re advising the McCain campaign to point to his support for the surge strategy in Iraq? Why– if only this had occurred to someone sooner! What a loss for John McCain, that Bill Kristol has been in his coma for the past month!

The rest of Bill Kristol’s advice for the campaign of a month ago, here.

If there’s a show on tv that’s more overrated, I’m unaware of it. Case in point: not only did the very talented Jon Hamm allow himself to be humiliated in a skit about “Jon Hamm’s John Ham” (a lunch product designed to be eaten in the toilet — get it? John ham? Get it? Get it?) — but scant moments later, he was featured in a skit about a poltiician named “Finger” who was running for office in a town called “Butt.” You can just imagine the sophisticated hilarity which ensued from that wacky premise!

It’s the finest political satire on television!