Mark Halperin's Obamessiah moment

Apropos of nothing -- a complete non sequitur -- Mark Halperin of Time magazine lists 15 ways in which he says John McCain "underestimates" Obama, e.g. :

15. How forcefully Obama will now move to the center as a mainstream, optimistic candidate celebrating both change and America’s greatness.

Carol Platt Liebau suggest this is wishful thinking on Halperin's part:

Halperin conveniently chooses not to address the fact that about half of Democrat primary voters didn't choose Obama; that he's having trouble in key constituencies including women, Latinos and blue-collar workers; and that deep divisions remain within his party.

More importantly, perhaps, it took Obama until June to win the Democratic primary against Hillary, who began the campaign with higher negative ratings than Charles Manson. If Halperin's hymn to Obama does nothing else, it should convince the McCain campaign not to underestimate the depth and intensity of the elite media's infatuation with Hopey.

I said months ago that John McCain was destined to lose in November. He's a wretched campaigner who's never won a seriously contested general election. But Obama's never beaten a real Republican, either, and the primary contest against Hillary has exposed his talent for blunders, gaffes and shady associates. This might make Obama especially vulnerable to attack ads, and his weak performance in the Philadelphia debate indicated that Obama doesn't play defense well.

The GOP attack dogs will go to work on Obama this summer (Citizens United is working on a documentary), and we'll see what kind of damage they do. The McCain campaign's "Not Obama" strategy may prove to be more clever than it looks at first glance.

UPDATE: McCain tells ABC's Charlie Gibson, "I'm surprised, frankly, to see the poll numbers as close as they are, given our 'brand' problems in the Republican Party."

Via Hot Air, where Allahpundit says:

We’re still well within striking distance. Had we nominated anyone else, we wouldn’t have been.

Has AP become a McCainiac? And who is this "we"? John McCain is not part of any "we" that includes conservatives, and nearly every conservative worth mentioning -- including The Boss -- was dead-set against McCain's nomination.