Matthews' show: "Obama is it!" Oh really?

The pundits are all mooning and fawning over Obama, but is this just
typical media knee jerking? On today's Chris Matthews Show, only one
of the panelists had it right...Dan Rather, of all people, who has a
not-too-distant history of getting things hopelessly wrong. He
cautioned against anyone awarding the nomination to Obama yet simply
by saying, "It's early yet!" Boy, is he right about that. The
"Matthews Meter," a collective vote of 12 of his usual guest pundits,
had Obama taking the nomination already, 12-zip! Oh really!
Uh...guys? It's a little early for that...Dan's right...for once.
It's also too early to count out Romney, but he's still sinking, while
Hillary at least figured out where the live preserver was.

Live shots of Clinton working the NH town hall meetings today showed
there IS a retooling of her campaign strategy going on...she's no
longer pontificating or having the assured gaze of the heir apparent.
She's taking and answering every question no matter how small
(something McCain's also doing), a technique perfected by Bill in '92,
and is out there connecting, something she did NOT do well in Iowa.
She's also talking about national policy effects on local issues like
small business, important to a state that has lost most of its
industry and survives on the scraps of small business. Matthews' old
boss, "Da Tipstuh", said it best: "Awl pahletics iz locuhl." (Bahstun
accent is authentic.) Meanwhile, Obama continues to say pretty things
about "change," but still isn't addressing issues specificly...which,
if HE doesn't retool, could send HIM into the breakwater before he
puts out to sea on Tsunami Tuesday.

Don't count her out yet, not by a long shot. However, if she doesn't
scramble her campaign staff soon, she could be headed for the rocks
first. Mike Murphy, longtime GOP strategist, has it right...she's got
ten days to fix her campaign machine, or she's toast. The dumbest
thing she's got going right now is that her chief strategist is also
her chief pollster...WRONG! Look for Clinton staff to be shuffled in
the next week. If that happens, watch out. If it doesn't, the
"Matthews Meter" may very well be right, and it'll wind up being a
McCain-Obama bout.

Most damaging still shot of the week: Hillary giving a "victory
speech" in Iowa after being trampled by Obama and Edwards, with Bill,
Madeliene Albright and the whole cast of Clinton '92 in the
background. Younger voters don't want to see that...not anymore, at
least. Old time party regulars like me liked it, but she needs to
start peeling off the kids from Obama.

Most cynical quote of the week: "Well, you know, Obama gets these
young white chicks in his campaign because they have that "Mandingo"
sexual thing going on...." --Name withheld to avoid bloodshed.