by Evie Stone

Good morning all, and happy birthday to Barack Obama (47) and Helen Thomas (88).

In the absence of compelling political news over the weekend, the newsiverse has turned its attention to chin-stroking on the state of the race. Newsweek post-mortems the Respectful Campaign (2008-2008), noting that while attack politics tends to work, it has its drawbacks:

While voters say they dislike negative campaigning, polls show they are influenced by it. Still, the constant tit-for-tat squabbling between the candidates is dispiriting and so convoluted than even political junkies have trouble keeping score. And it has a way of distorting the candidates and making them seem meaner or more robotlike than they actually are.

The WSJ writes that on balance, the negative turn in the campaign has been a successful gambit for John McCain, who spent last week driving the media message rather than just reacting to Obama — even if that message often seemed to be that McCain's negative attacks were sprurious.

 

Part of that strategy involves clamping down on McCain's formerly unlimited (at times awkwardly so) availability to his traveling press corps — which provided too many opportunities for the candidate to veer off-topic and distract reporters from whatever the campaign wants them to write about:

"It's part of the drill. If you're going to get elected, you've got to have a clear and consistent message," said Mark McKinnon, who was a top McCain adviser through the primaries. Allowing the candidate to riff on any topic reporters bring up is "almost gross negligence or malpractice," he said.

The WP's Howard Kurtz explains further:

McCain is less engaging as a scripted candidate. But his strategists are convinced that the perpetual access was eroding their ability to drive a message, forcing the candidate to play on the media's turf by responding to flap-of-the-day questions, such as top adviser Carly Fiorina's lament that many health plans cover Viagra but not birth control.

On the local front, the Old Dominion remains in the spotlight, with a front-page takeout in the Washington Post about how Virginia's electoral battle is shaping up. President Bush carried the commonwealth handily in 2000 and 2004, but the state has lately elected two Democratic Governors and a Democratic Senator. Popular former Gov. Mark Warner, a onetime speculative Presidential candidate, is favored in this fall's Senate race, and observers speculate that Warner and Obama could each help the other's chances. It's fair to say that Obama is heavily contesting Virginia — the article estimates his campaign has established some two dozen offices in the commonwealth, compared with about 6 for McCain (with a few more in the works). And while both Warner and Sen. Jim Webb seem to be out of Veepstakes contention, Gov. Tim Kaine is still living under the media's VP kliegs. Not to be outdone, McCain is reportedly vetting VA GOP Congressman Eric Cantor for his number two spot. Virginia has only 13 electoral votes, but hasn't supported a Democrat for President since LBJ, so a victory there would be symbolically significant.

And finally, after all the endless Michigan and Florida hoo-ha, Obama and Hillary Clinton are finally united in calling for full voting rights for the embattled delegations. The move may not be enough kumbaya to bring HRC's most ardent supporters back into the fold, but it's a game effort.