IT'S NOT A REAL PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN UNTIL THE GOP FINDS A DISTRACTION

Well, of course -- are we surprised?

GOP sees Rev. Wright as pathway to victory

... GOP strategists believe they've finally found an antidote to Obamamania.

In their view, the inflammatory sermons by Obama's pastor offer the party a pathway to victory if Obama emerges as the Democratic nominee. Not only will the video clips enable some elements of the party to define him as unpatriotic, they will also serve as a powerful motivating force for the conservative base....

That's from the Politico.

Now, most people who saw this story read it as follows: The Democrats were going to win with Obama, but then a surprise gift dropped in the GOP's lap. The Wright tapes are alienating working-class whites, and by a strange turn of events the GOP happens to have chosen a nominee who could win over these voters after Obama's stumble.

Here's how I read it: The GOP was going to find something on whoever the Democrats nominated that's utterly unrelated to the issues the next president will face. This was inevitably going to become the central issue of the race. By the fall, the GOP nominee, whoever it was, was going to be "normal" and the Democrat was going to be beyond the pale.

I won't quote it to you again, but I said all this last May. Hell, I even predicted that Reverend Wright might be the distraction if Obama won the nomination.

That's why I'd almost like to see Hillary get this thing, because if she doesn't, we "Obamaniacs" will be deemed the people who screwed it up for the Democrats. We'll be told that she would have won -- whereas I'm thinking, You think they won't do this to you? You think you're vetted? No Democrat is ever vetted. You thought your husband was vetted when he was elected in '92, and they just kept un-vetting him, picking away at old and new scandals until he was boxed in by their attacks on him. Don't kid yourself -- they can still do it to you. And he had youth, freshness, and opponents who became media laughingstocks. You won't have any of those advantages.

Look, I don't really know at this point who would match up better against McCain. What I do know is that, sooner or later, the press will turn the race into a referendum on some irrelevant issue regarding the Democrat, just as the GOP wants it to. And I'm not sure either Democrat this year can withstand that.