Michael Rubin compares the current situation in Turkey to that of Iran in 1979. That is not a comparison that I need to contemplate so soon after eating my breakfast.

One Pennsylvania native thinks Obama's slight of rural Americans is a big-time error. Bill Kristol thinks the mask has slipped off Obama's carefully crafted public image. It just adds weight to the case the Clintons are making, although this piece from Politico reveals that the Clintons have more they wish they could say about Obama, but are holding back.

The recent flap just confirms an impression that has already been gaining strength inside my head as I think about the election. Obama came onto the scene as a fresh face, with great oratorical strength and a campaign theme designed to inspire people, especially the young and disaffected. His very being seemed to promise relief from the seemingly intractable problems facing the country in 2008. He would walk into the White House and, instantly, problems would disappear. Our popularity in the rest of the world would soar, our troops would come home, health care would be more affordable, and poisonous partisan politics would become less so. But as the campaign has dragged on Obama has, inevitably, come into focus as a flawed human being. He is a politician from Chicago (with friends like Rezko, a sweetheart land deal, and a Black nationalist pastor who believes the government created AIDS to kill Black people). He is an elitist from Harvard (who thinks rural folks embrace guns and religion as a response to their fear). He is an inexperienced public servant with only one term in the U.S. Senate and a brief career prior to that as a State Senator from Illinois. Over time, what will also come into focus is that we are at war (our enemies will find a way to remind us of that sometime between now and November, I am sure), we have no good options in Iraq, the Iranians are developing nukes, no President can stop a recession, and there is no consensus on how to improve our health care system or our immigration problems, and the list goes on. In sum, reality intrudes. Thus, it appears that we will have another reality election. It still bodes poorly for the GOP, as the voters have a tendency to throw out the party in power when times seem bad. But, if national security is still a major issue, John McCain has a fighting chance.