I am so tired of "American Idol" prism of this year's election (and as a true admirer of John McCain, I've never been more disappointed in him). This race will be won by very unsexy metrics: voter registration, database strength, Midwestern states. National polls mean less and less each day that the race in the important states solidifies. This Sarah Palin nonsense is even more irritating because now everyone wants to offer a prescription to the Obama campaign: Attack her! Get Hillary in this! Stay on message! Don't patronize!

Listen, Obama and Biden have a perfect plan in place. They're just letting Palin go and ramming the Bush=McCain mantra down everyone's throat. 90% agreement with the past 8 years is pretty damning stuff. This is 70s Steelers football, and while it doesn't feed the news cycle like the breathlessly breaking pieces of news that come out of Alaska, it's just what they need to do.

If the McCain campaign is dumb enough to let their Stepford VP be defined through a month of white-hot media scrutiny and lose their own message (on top of losing their main critique of Obama - his inexperience), that's their choice. Meanwhile, Obama and Biden will hang out in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio, and Florida (Virginia's just icing).

Elections are won by organization, patience, and calm, clear strategy. Is it rhetorical if I ask who's displaying those qualities at the moment?