Drudge still has a headline up about Barack Obama announcing his Veep tomorrow, which Mark Halperin calls BS. My gut is that it is BS. Obama probably wants to wait until Wednesday or Thursday to delay the scrutiny until during the conventions. But the evening talk shows were about the VP speculation. Undoubtedly tomorrow will be about it. And the whole week will be.
The Obama campaign’s tactics have been great. Now, don’t get me wrong. As Open Left’s Chris Bowers points out, it appears that John McCain’s campaign is winning the war:
It is very difficult to not conclude that McCain is winning the messaging war right now. If Obama is winning in field, paid media, and free media exposure in a very Democratic year, what other explanation could there possibly be for his narrow lead nationally?
But every time there has been s significant float of a name by the Obama campaign, 2-3 days of media get sucked up. The Obama campaign is clearly doing it deliberately, when potential VP candidate Tim ("Hahahahahaha") Kaine cancelled a fundraiser, that was practically the only national political story for two days. When Obama did a long overnight in Indiana, a possible Evan Bayh VP candidacy got enormous coverage.
Now, tactics and skirmishes do not win wars. Ultimately, long-term strategies do. Right now McCain’s strategy is based on substance, whereas Obama’s often is not, as noted by The New Republic:
"They’re terrified of people poking around Obama’s life," one reporter says. "The whole Obama narrative is built around this narrative that Obama and David Axelrod built, and, like all stories, it’s not entirely true. So they have to be protective of the crown jewels." Another reporter notes that, during the last year, Obama’s old friends and Harvard classmates were requested not to talk to the press without permission.
But still. It is so frustrating to watch the Obama campaign dominate the media like this with nothing at all going on.