The very concept cracked me up from the start.  For several elections, as many noted, the electoral map has looked like the map of secession almost a century and a half ago.  

These CO and NV polls are signs that the Mountain West strategy is failing, leaving the general election as the usual slog around Kalamazoo, Columbus, and Scranton-  with the special treat that McCain has put Minnesota and Wisconsin into play as well.

It's all a Chicago pol knows how to do, sure.  That this campaign season has surprised some is only because they come from another country or something, the two-party-system Land of NotChiTown.  In Chicago, you spend the primary destroying other Dems, and then you go on vacation until the inauguration, because you already have won.

You might have to dish some dirt on a Republican opponent who's causing a bit of concern, but you control all the offices with public records, so you have all the goods on them ready to go.  You can phone that in from vacation, too.

The only Living Dead they're used to dealing with are the Dem voters resurrected for every election to cast a vote from beyond.  Chicago pols sure aren't accustomed to Living Dead Primary Opponents who can't seem to stay dead once destroyed, as they thought they had done to Clinton.  They certainly don't know what to do with voters who can't be cowed, because they can't be bought off with sinecures in Chicago City Hall or the Illinois statehouse.

And that the Dem HQ now is just an extension of  Axelrod's office down the street may not be helping, as the rest of 'em seem to have become waylaid by the Chicago Way, too.  They don't get it.  

Da primary is so ovuh, dere, ain'a?  Mebbe dey need a pep talk from Mike Ditka.   Da consummate Chicago coach could tell 'em da game ain't ovuh at halftime.  Crack open da champagne and coronate yerselves in da halftime locker room and see what happens, hey.

But then we return to the problem I happened to note earlier.  Halftime adjustments in the game plan require that the players be educable.  I just don't see that Obama is that.  He's the QB who dropped the ball but won't admit it was his job.  

However, from experience of living in cities and countries that have hosted big worldwide events, these measures can be very problematic for people who live near and around those locations.