Self-described Marxist and professional contrarian Christopher Hitchens woke up today from an apparently week-long slumber to cough up a Slate column on the state of the presidential race. Characteristically, he gave it the subtle subtitle "Why Is Obama So Vapid, Hesitant, And Gutless?".
Last week really ought to have been the end of the McCain campaign. With the whole country feeling (and its financial class acting) as if we lived in a sweltering, bankrupt banana republic, and with this misery added to the generally Belarusian atmosphere that surrounds any American trying to board a train, catch a plane, fill a prescription, or get a public servant or private practitioner on the phone, it was surely the moment for the supposedly reform candidate to assume a commanding position.
And yet, and unless I am about to miss some delayed "groundswell" or mood shift, none of this has translated into any measurable advantage for the Democrat.
Here are this week's national polls, to illuminate for the reader just how with it Hitchens really is:
