Three Guys and a Table (Collins / NYT)

[struggle4progress]

By GAIL COLLINS
Published: October 16, 2008

... For the last two years, dedicated voters have practically lived with Barack Obama and John McCain. We’ve watched three dozen debates! We’ve seen them in groups large enough to stage a small invasion, then one-on-one, then at a faux town hall, surrounded by regular people made only slightly irregular by the rule prohibiting any show of emotion. We’ve seen them debate standing behind podiums, wandering around the stage, and finally — in a dramatic change of pace — sitting around a table! On swivel chairs! ...

None of their effort during the debate was for those of us who have been with them since the beginning. At this point, they only care about the small chunk of undecided voters in swing states. That means a handful of people in Ohio who have managed to avoid noticing that Obama and McCain disagree on virtually every important issue facing the nation and continue to insist that they are torn between them ...

This is one of the reasons why the last few weeks of a presidential campaign tend to be so awful. The candidates are gearing their remarks to people who have managed to completely ignore nearly two years of news about the 2008 elections. In the end, it’s always all about the ones who play hard to get.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/16/opinion/16collins.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

[sinkingfeeling]

1. I like that because it's absolutely true.