He's out talking to the people. If there is anything Obama maybe doesn't do enough, it is to feed the media monster. The Clintons excel at giving the media bite-sized, sound-byte ready talking points, and the media monster eats them up. The Clintons have also excelled at getting their surrogates out on primary nights.

I am conflicted on the route Obama should take. He could play the same game, and give the media a few sound bytes to appease their hunger. I think that if he did that, it would better guide the opinion of the talking heads and could help form the continuing narrative. However, that's not really how he works, and if the sound bytes come off as too canned it runs the risk of not being convincing.

Well, he's on Fox tomorrow morning. That's pretty newsworthy for good or for ill. At least it'll stop that pathetic "Obama Watch."

This is sort of my experience too. His voice has seemed sort of silent for a few weeks. Of course, he's out in the field campaigning, not focusing on national media and catering to political junkies around the country. But what I really think this is is that he's not controlling the agenda. Hillary's controlling the agenda, defining the race at the moment. And that's made him recede into the background, even as he's a constant topic of conversation.

I dunno, I think it might be a deliberate strategy too. The wacky couple next door is yelling obsceneties from their milk carton fort and throwing beer cans at passers-by and sure, they can drown out other conversations by just being loud but if you ignore them, eventually they will grow tired.

On the other hand, at this point I would probably be pretty discouraged by the collective idiocy of the electorate myself, the supposedly normal people who somehow manage to believe that it is a perfectly legitimate contention that the Michigan race should count. I might just be taking a break from where the stupidity seems to condense into the fourth form of matter, the MSM.

Time and time again Obama has shown to be a better man and a more able thinker than I, though, so I would wager on the first option.

He doesn't have to pay much attention to Hillary or Bill. But it seems that they're chasing him away right now. He just has to turn around every now and then and spring some unassailable logic on them that can take flight in the media.

Whatever the reason I think it could end up being a positive. He was over-exposed and people were suffering from Obama-fatigue. This is one reason I believe he needs to get the primary sewn up - he needs to go away from a while, be off of every bodies televisions and not be the topic at the water cooler. I couldn't imagine living in Pennsylvania for the last week of the campaign with the television and radio ads, the mailers and the robocalls - I'd probably have been suicidal.

I think he even knows he got caught up in the game in Pennsylvania and wants to take a step back. People began tuning him out, began turning the channel whenever the primary was discussed. I think he lost his bearings and his footing and is just trying to refocus his campaign. Hillary was controlling the discussion, he was always on the defensive.

Now you have his calmness juxtaposed with the frantic Clinton campaign. I think he wants to give of the air of inevitability. To appear more Presidential.

The campaign trail could also be catching up to him - I don't know how either do it.

I don't know how this tact will play out with his fund raising, but it will give his ardent supporters a time out as well, a chance to recharge their batteries and enjoy the summer.

I just think nationally, people are tired and want it to be over. I think it's going to become a regional election the rest of the way out. Let's not forget he gave a speech to 35000+ in Philly a week ago. The states in play will get excited, but the 40 States already decided don't really want to hear about it anymore. That's probably a good thing.

Another possibly strategy is to end the media feeding frenzy that seemed to push the idea that Sen. Clinton still had a real chance for the sole reason to keep the story going to fill air time in this 24 hour news world.

Perhaps, it's a tactical move. These things run on momentum...who's up and who's down going right on in to election day. The "undecideds" are seemingly breaking at the last minute to whomever is prominently/favorably featured during the last few days.

I'm not sure what you think it is that he should be doing, I guess. A lot of any silence OR any noise is the choice of the media. Short of his negatively attacking or making a blunder, they're not interested right now, it's far easier to report all the sound and fury out of the Clintons.

So, I think my question is, what exactly is it that he should be doing that he isn't doing, that will get him the MSM attention (in a good way)?

I'm not sure that I agree with you that Obama is trying to stay out of the national spotlight. I just think what he is saying and doing (talking about the economy and energy reform) isn't what the MSM wants to report on. They'd rather focus on how Bill is losing it or the donors who are abandoning Hillary's campaign to support Obama. On Friday Barack announced his 50 state voter registration drive as well as the joint-fund raising with the DNC. Both should have been a big deal but got barely a notice by the MSM, which is only interested in dirt and gossip. Why should both be a big deal? Because they are long term. He was sending the message that he is looking beyond the primary race, knowing that he is going to be the winner, and is preparing for the general election. In addition, both the voter registration and the fund-raising are designed to build the Democratic Party and help down-ticket races. The MSM yawned. The voters shrugged. But the superdelegates, who will benefit from the bigger base as well as the money for down-ticket races, got it. What I found telling is that the DNC asked Hillary for joint fund raising also and got the cold shoulder. The superdelegates got that message too.

A few somewhat disjointed thoughts:

I have to agree that the MSM is at least partly the cause of this perception. They really do only want the bickering. For example, I thought Guerra-Mondragon's defection was probably more indicative than anything lately of the state of this race, but the media couldn't have cared less.

After PA, I think he saw the MSM had decided to push the comeback kid thing again. But in the media narrative, the comeback kid needs an antagonist. No antagonist, no story. So they have to find something else. Instead of feeding the Media Monster, maybe he's trying to starve it, or make it look elsewhere for sustenance.

I think this primary race has become something everybody detests but can't take their eyes off of. I think Obama sensed people were getting an accompanying Obama fatigue. Clinton fatigue, too, of course. But she can't afford to pull back right now. So she's left . . . maybe yelling at cloud? I definitely think that's how people are coming to see Bill when left to his own devices.

The last time Obama went AWOL the Bosnia thing blew up. Maybe if Obama isn't giving the MSM the controversy it craves, they will find a way to squeeze it out of the Clintons.

In terms of media image, there's a lot to be said for going off the grid for a while. Just ask Britney Spears.

You think he's winning. I think he's coasting.

The media loves scandals and fights so the Clintons are giving them what they want. I have noticed that in the last 2 months the media like CNN on Ballot Bowl gives both clintons all the air time. They show about 30 minutes of Bill Clinton and 2 hours of Hillary, I mean what the F&*K it's like Bill Clinton is the VP. I have stopped watching CNN because of that and I only watch MSNBC now as FOX is completely out of question.

CNN gives the Clintons free time in order to try and get the sound bites, like DEBATE-GATE.

I vote for Obama speaking out on current affairs per Cohen's suggestion. Remember the day Obama came out strongly that the minute he'd get into office he'd investigate the AG's tactics re: torture? I recall feeling VERY positive about his proactive stance on an important issue of the day.

While he's down in the weeds and absorbed in the campaign, which we appreciate, can't he look up once in awhile and comment on what else is happening in the daily news? It's an easy and important way to demonstrate how very much in-touch he truly is.

Karl Rove has a post up on Newsweek (http://www.newsweek.com/id/134322) on six steps Obama needs to take to address the elitist label. Don't dismiss Rove just because...whatever you think of him and his legions, Rove's a master of his craft. Read this -- Obama should...
1. Your stump speech is sounding old and out of touch....Come up with
something fresh... Recapture the optimistic tone of your start and discard the weary, prickly and distracted tone you've taken on.
2. When you get into trouble, pick one, simple explanation...
3.Your lack of achievements undercuts your core themes...In the coming months, say that you'll
appoint Republicans to your cabinet and get a couple to say they'd serve.
4.You speak of the "fierce urgency of now"...what urgent issues have drawn your enormous talents? ...Pick a big issue and fight hard for it.
Stop the attacks. They undermine your claim to a post-partisan new politics...
6.To answer growing questions about your inexperience, people need to know, in concrete and
credible ways, what they can expect from you as president. That's missing now...

I can't see where he's wrong.

When he's out campaigning on a national level and making big speeches, people complain that he's not being specific enough. When he's knocking on doors and hanging out in diners, they say he's not making enough big speeches.

The fact is, after Indiana, he can spend the rest of the race smoking dope in Jamaica and it probably won't make a difference. Hillary simply has no path to the nomination.

If the Democrats want to win in the Fall, they'll nominate Obama. If they want to split the party and have riots at the convention in Denver, they'll overturn the will of the people. I'm pretty sure we know what they're going to decide.

When has Obama ever actually dominated the national dialog? When he was surging it was all about the high concept of Obama, instant transformation, the Singularity of the progressives - not about anything he intends to do, but simply what he will be.

Being-ness wears off, when there is no follow-up. The question about Obama going right back to last summer has been whether he has a second act. If he does he hasn't opened it. He fattened up enough on red state caucuses in February that he may not need to in the remaining primaries. Still it is a bit embarrassing when the presumptive nominee washes out in a place like PA by ten 9.35 points after spending the bejeezus out of Hillary there.

Apparently the yet uncommitted superdelegates aren't hearing Obama's music either, since they are persistently failing to hop on his bandwagon in spite of universal respectable opinion that they should.

Obama will spend the next six months fighting back

Not if he wants to win, he won't. If he wants to win, he'll put McCain on the ropes and keep him there. The rule in politics is that if you're playing defense, you're losing. Notice how he's refusing to play defense with Hillary. He doesn't need to, and he knows it. And NO ONE on the Republican side is attacking Hillary. They don't even care about her any longer. She's irrelevant. So the only people who are still watching her little sideshow are her supporters and the press. Obama and McCain are already past it.

Obama will f