To Know Him is To?

The more folks get to know Barack, the less they like him.

Nate Silver notes that “three new polls released today show significant movement
toward John McCain.”

The assumptions of the Obama campaign, that they can win by focusing in on John Kerry's electoral college results and swinging a few states his way by being a better version of John Kerry, ignore the fact that when known and understood, Barack is unelectable.

In Washington state, Sen. McCain trails Sen. Barack Obama by seven points in a
new survey, compared to an average deficit of 13.4 points in earlier state
polls, he notes.

Is this an anomaly?

“A similar pattern manifests itself in Minnesota, where Rasmussen has Barack
Obama’s lead eroding to 4 points; Obama had held a 13-point lead last month. And
in the critical swing state of Colorado, Rasmussen has John McCain edging into a
1-point lead; last month, it had been Obama by 3..”

Did some identifiable event cause the movement away from McCain?

Silver says there are “no overwhelmingly strong hints about what’s going in from
the cross-tabular results, but it appears that McCain has gained ground with
independents (as is almost always the case when the polls move) and also that
some Republican voters are moving from undecided to McCain.” (Also worth noting:
This Obama slippage coincides with news of Russia’s move into Georgia.)

To be fair, some of this probably has to do with mistakes the Obama campaign is making.

Recent events seem to be reversing the candidates’ public images. McCain is
starting to look like the incumbent while Obama is golfing – sort of like when
Obama was on his trip abroad and McCain was at a sausage haus.

The overseas trip was the wrong move at the wrong time. It came just as Barack's act was starting to get old, and it served to reinforce those things viewed by his base as assets that will end up being problems for Barack in the general election. His emphasis on diplomacy, evenhandedness and lofty rhetoric reek of Kerry-style elticism as symbolized by Europe worship, so speaking in Berlin to 200,000 swooning kids wasn't smart.

“When Mr. Obama was overseas last month, Mr. McCain’s foreign policy bona fides
seemed diminished, if only because he could not attract the news media attention
received by Mr. Obama, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. Now, Mr. Obama’s voice seems muted at a time when much of the world has been worriedly watching the conflict,” between Georgia and Russia writes The New York Times’ Michael Falcone.

Barack's Excellent Adventure, in retrospect, undermines his credibility with the real world diplomatic challenges of the Russian situation. And his failure to act like a president while on vacation - quitting the vacation and returning to Washington - makes him look confused in his first opportunity to rise to a real-world, international situation.