(cross-posted at the Big Orange)

While some folks gleefully point out the degree to which this takes McCain's 'experience' trump card off the table...

While others fret about whether this pick means any lingering Clinton/Obama divisions flare up...

While others hopefully speculate on ethics investigations...

It's STILL THE ECONOMY, STUPID!

Every Democrat conscious during the 2000 election remembers the utter frustration and annoyance at the media focusing on process over policy - we didn't get comparisons of Gore's Social Security plans to those of Bush's; we got stories about whether Gore was changing his wardrobe to include more earthy tones.

We didn't get analysis on the inept performance of George Bush in the debates, we got a 'sigh count' for Al Gore.

Over the months - it mushroomed into all sorts of nonsense.  Gore was corrupt.  Gore was a serial exaggerator.  Gore invented the internet.

I read over the weekend that "Pro-Hillary Writers have gone 'on strike'".

Now, as someone whose father was a lifelong union member (Plumbers & Pipefitter Local 172), and even served several terms on the union's contract committee in addition to spending a career in the cold and heat building northwest Indiana.... as someone whose mother stood against a reactionary few that wanted to decertify and eliminate the represenation of her local chapter of the Indiana State Teachers Association at the height of Reagan union busting hysteria.... as someone that even worked through the local P&P union as a laborer -- I'm accutely aware of the power of unions.

As long as I can remember, there have always been those seminal moments, those unforgettable quips or campaign releases that really just sum up a race.

Often times, they don't even mean to do so - the words, the response, the news of the day, the general state of the state... the stars align and we get a so fundamentally perfect line, a perfect answer, a perfect response -- that you have to sit back and admire it.

When the accounts and post-mortems of the 2008 Democratic primary are written - and when historians 100s of years from now analyze it, it is my supreme hope that two themes emerge.  I further hope that such scholars accept that these two themes are neither at odds, nor does one follow the other.   They share a common chronology and a common campaign, but each happened without intervention of the other.

My kingdom for a good Borat joke!

Tomorrow's front page of the New York Times has a rather nasty 'late January Surprise' for the spouse of one of our Democratic candidates.

I'll give you some hints below the fold.