It has been a silly-season weekend where Senator McCain and poor, sloppy national reporting made a non flip-flop from Barack Obama the weekend lead attack and pushed Senator McCain’s own acceptance of $69,100 in funds from the same Swift Boat group that smeared John Kerry in 2004 and which he denounced disappear from the headlines. And that was their best shot.

When you sit back and look at it, the contest is so laughably one-sided at this moment the media seem desperate to grab anything to chink away at Obama’s armour. This battle scarred and tested candidate went toe-to-toe with Billary for 57 contests and emerged victorious. He now has the entire Democratic Party brain trust behind him, a grass roots organisation with offices in all 50 states working door-to-door and a juggernaut in the making.

The Arizona senior citizen has been handled with kid gloves by the media on his Straight Talk Express because the gaffes are so obvious that to exploit them now would be the end of the campaign four months too early. Yes, he went through a torture situation in Hanoi none of us would wish on any other person and there is a media double standard at work this campaign.

The kid from Chicago though lets the Republican attack bullets bounce off of him and like someone calling the movie super hero Hancock an a**hole. He glares, gets it done and moves forward, never taking his eye off the ultimate prize.

Obama is attacked for moving to the centre by the left and the right? No prob. He stays the course and looks tougher, younger and stronger to McCain’s tired and old every day. The movie ‘Meet Dave’ is about to open in the UK where Eddie Murphy plays Dave a robot character responding to outside stimuli by having a team of tiny robot operators inside his head that make him respond just a second or so behind the moment he should have.

Watching Senator McCain it always seems as if the smile is just a little too forced, the punchline a little too late and the Meet John punchline team inside of him registers 0.5 – 1.5 seconds later than it should have. So add distracted to slow and stiff.

Attacking Senator Obama for leaving the public finance system and then accepting and not denouncing this kind of support from the Swift Boat team is classic Karl Rove double standard attack politics. It was successful in 2004 and as has happened throughout the ‘08 campaign, voters do not recognise the premise as valid.

While pundits are quick to point out that July leaders have lost six of the last nine Presidential contests, Zogby and Gallup show solid Obama leads even in red states, seven weeks before the conventions.

Obama has been hitting solid line drive singles and doubles up the middle, scoring runs and maintaining his lead. Within the next 7-14 days expect him to start hitting home runs 1st with his VP selection, a foreign trip where the world will clamour to greet him and after moving his acceptance speech from inside the 20,000 seat Pepsi Centre to an outdoor 75,000 seat football stadium on the 45th anniversary of Dr. King’s, ‘I Have a Dream’ speech should ensure maximum coverage and exposure before a global audience of millions, it will be game on.

Yes he can speak and he will offer clear, detailed solutions that will leave the McCain camp wobbling. And while we say Ralph who? to Nader’s silent candidacy the 6% Libertarian/conservative Bob Barr siphons from McCain’s totals today could be even larger and closer to Ross Perot’s 10% in ’92 come election day. Even if he chooses non-politician, former hp CEO Carly Fiorina as his running mate, it’s going to be a long 119 days for the Republican team.