I had an idea for a show....
No, just kidding.
I had an idea for an extended sporting metaphor (because we don't have enough of those) for Obama's campaign and the media's attempts to cover and understand it.
It comes down to this. The media's appetites and habits are tuned in to the big hit, the home run, as the key metaphor for election contests, with a 24 hour attention span. Obama is a pitcher, progressively building a winning season over many months.
It's the great, romantic headline grabber. The home run with 2 on in the last innings that wins the game. It's the visceral core of media focus. The thing is, most of the things that go into a winning team and a winning season are actually happening before, after and elsewhere. Outside the media focus.
The media has been utterly predictable in their response to Obama's successes. Perpetually recasting everything that happens in terms of gladitorial combat. Constantly looking for the killer blow, the game winning home run. They've done a bad job of predicting his success. They're continuing to do a bad job of understanding what he is doing now.
Obama's opponents have been, if anything, even worse than the media. Look at the Clinton campaign's key mistakes. The expectation that it all came down to the big states on Super Tuesday. Mark Penn's almost insane tendency to forget that Democratic primaries are not winner take all. The assumption that big hitters pulling out the crunch plays were all it would take.
Look at Fox News and the other conservative cheerleaders. Constantly in search of the campaign ending gaffe. The killer sound bite that will define the whole year. The endless, mindless adolescent game of gotcha.
Obama doesn't work that way. He's been focussed on the long term goal from the beginning. From the winning way he built his organisation, to the brilliant ground game in 50 states, to the way he chooses his words. It's all about putting together a winning season.
Whilst the media and his political opponents have been breathlessly hanging on for the big hit he has been calmly sending them in over the plate. Changing up as needed, looking for weaknesses, building themes, working the angles. Fast, inside, curve, slow, fast outside. Big event in Georgia, Hillary in Unity NH, Access Hollywood, Senate floor. None of it has the orgasmic pay off of the big hit, the triumphant run around the bases, the 24 hour celebration. But, you look up at the end of the season you're a loser and he's the President of the United States.
That long term focus, that calm attention to building a winning season, setting the strategic goals, showing the way. That's a set of qualities we're not used to seeing modern politics. There's a word for that sort of thing. It's called leadership.