Sunday Morning Grab Bag

by Steve Soto

Here are several items for you to chew on this morning.

Obama’s repositioning to the middle has worked so well that the media now asserts that there is little difference between him and McCain on several issues, and that centrism is the political norm. The lethal thing about this is that once the media has established in their minds the similarities between two now-defined "centrist" candidates, it makes it easier for them to peddle their boy and friend McCain as the safer choice. This was always the pitfall that Axelrod and Obama never seemed to grasp: once you round off the edges and crawl closer to your opponent, you reduce the reasons for independent voters (and the media) to invest their vote and support in the less experienced candidate.

The New York Times reports this morning that the Bush administration is seeing the handwriting on the wall and revising its plans around a more accelerated troop drawdown from Iraq. It also reflects an effort to help McCain by taking Iraq off the table as a major election issue after Obama himself moved away from a timeline for troop withdrawals.

Bush pioneers, who are the elite among his political fundraisers, are scouring the globe seeking six-figure donations to fund the Bush presidential library. How are they doing it? By promising photo ops with Dick Cheney and Condi Rice in exchange for the cash. And one fundraiser in question is taking advantage of his position on a sensitive homeland security board to make his pitch. It’s good to see how the Bush folks have brought honor back to the White House after eight years of sleaze.