Over at MSNBC Chuck Todd has this running theory that any day Obama has to talk about race, it's a bad day for him.
I'd like to update that theory and suggest that any day he gets to talk about the economy, values or security puts him at an advantage.
A day when he gets to talk about what it feels like to be Christian is a really good day for him.
Go below for the fold on what we should take away from the Warren interview.
[Update] Go to Real Clear Politics or MSNBC First Read for Chuck Todd's take on the interview
A few months ago up to a quarter of folks polled thought Obama was a Muslim, or had been educated in a Muslim school. Mark Penn advised HRC's Clinton to take advantage of Obama's strangeness and cast him as non-American. For his part McCain's efforts to paint Obama as a celebrity are just a variation on the idea that Obama is way different from you and me.
So any venue that gives Obama an opportunity to discuss just how Christian he is, just how American he is, just which scripture he likes, has gotta be a net plus. Add to that he gets to stand beside McCain in front of an evangelical crowd straight out of central casting can't hurt either.
Still with all that going for him in the Warren interview Obama still came across as a different kinda guy. He came across as the guy different from the rest of us in homeroom class. He came across as one of the whiz kids or nerds you sat next to in homeroom before they went off to nerd classes and you and I went off to regular kid classes.
He's still different, but a nerd or whiz kid is a different kind of different. It a difference we've seen before. Think Kissinger, McNamara, Schlesinger. They were too were odd balls and nerds and the point is we've folks like this before in government. HRC is a little like that and so is Condi. The problem is Kissinger and McNamara probably couldn't win an election for President. Then again guys like Kissinger and McNamara don't go body surfing in Hawaii, give killer speeches in Germany, or look good on t-shirts. So unlike John Kerry who went on a wind-surfing vacation and came back as 'too different to be President," Obama went on vacation and came back less different than he was before.
McCain also came across as a kid we used to see in homeroom. He came across as the high school's star quarterback. He dates cheerleaders and he feels bad about the way he broke up with his last cheerleader girl. The good news is everybody like his new cheerleader girlfriend, especially because her dad owns a beer distributorship and she's gonna have one of her own when she gets older.
In my high school the school quarterback was also a different kind of guy. If anything he was more of a celebrity than the high school whiz kid. He was popular and we made him prom king. We also elected him the senior class president.
Interestingly, in our high school our whiz kid also played trumpet and had a pretty good rock band. So he was channeling the Obama thing about being a cool nerd. And we elected him president of the school.