The Friday Headline

So, I'm leaving my apartment this morning and I see on the front page of the New York Sun, a strange little conservative paper beating a drum furiously in this blue city, a headline above that amazing picture of Obama in front of 200,000 people in Germany. The headline read: McCain Camp Hopes for a Backlash.

What? So the McCain camp hopes that Americans will look at a picture of ferr-reners cheering for a American presidential nominee and say, "F-&%^@#$!-You!" And then vote for McCain because foreigners don't really care about him? And Americans don't either?

It's funny, because even though it's the summer, I feel like if Hillary Clinton were the presumptive nominee, we'd have more of a presidential race. She'd have galvanized the anti-Clinton forces once again and the two of them -- McCain and Clinton -- would be fighting for the tiny sliver of swing voters over 50 who would decide the race. As it is, Obama represents a sea-change, as Andrew Sullivan pointed out in The Atlantic almost a year ago, he's the first post-Vietnam candidate and representative of a whole new generation in politics. He's galvanizing. But, the problem is, with all this Obama-love the world over, he could get presumptuous and make a big mistake.

If he does, we're all in trouble, because I don't know about you, but I don't want the Straight Talk Express pulling up to the White House. I'll take cheering Europeans over loathing ones any and every day of the week.