The Hot File

Is Obama having an unlucky streak of preemptive strikes by low brow news?  It certainly looks like it.  For instance, Obama’s  Op-Ed in the Tiiiiimes shows he wants to plant Afghanistan back in the media spotlight, and strategically speaking, put McCain on the defensive, forcing him to talk about the country and the resurgance of the Taliban, a subject he talks about far less than Iraq.  But to Obama’s chagrin, all the media will bloviate about today will be the New Yorker cover: Is it smart satire? Is it in poor taste? How many people think Obama is a Muslim? Is it all about magazine sales? Is the New Yorker unintentionally (or for the conspiracy theorists INtentionally) sabotaging Obama?  Blah blah blah.  The same thing happened just weeks ago before Obama’s highly touted speech on patriotism, an issue Obama needs sealed up before heading into the final stretch.  Instead of the media analyzing the craftmanship of the speech, comparisons to his famous speech on race, asking if it erased character doubts, the day was spent drolling on about Ret. General Wesley Clark’s comments on Face the Nation.  Is this normal or is happening to Obama more often than the average pol?