There really can be too much of a good thing. 

For weeks - months - Obama has dominated the media like an omnipresent figure at the background of everything. When McCain complains that the media is biased to Obama, he’s got a point. For starters, an old, balding white guy who’s been a fixture of Washington for years is just less interesting than a young, handsome african-american with a gift for public speaking…

…so he probably does have a point about Obama being a “celebrity”.

But the flip side of the coin is audience burnout. I think I’ve mentioned it before, but now quite a few in the mainstream talk about a public burnout on Obama. Obama, Obama, Obama - all hours of the day. It gets wearisome for anyone who isn’t a die-hard Obamaniac. 

Unfortunately, this burnout couldn’t come at a worst time for Barack - at least that’s what I think. McCain has been industriously trying to define Obama on his own terms. With people so worn on Obama, I think it actually makes them more receptive than usual to McCain’s accusations. You know, just for variety. 

And Obama simply HAS to hit back at McCain over those accusations or risk being “Kerry-ised” - finding himself defined as a leftist rock-star or something, like something out of the 60’s. Just where McCain would like it, really. I’m pretty sure he’d be able to muster some spectacular explosions if he could envisage Obama as a pot-tripping hippy icon fresh from Woodstock and some anti-war demonstration.

Now with audiences burned out, Obama is pretty much caught between hitting back and cooling off - he’s cooling it off on a weeklong vacation, but that’s just one of two unpalatable options. The other being burning out his audiences more, weakening his message and having them tune out or tune in on another. 

To be fair, taking a break is probably the least unpalatable of the two options. But it does mean that McCain has an additional 7 days to try and force him into a tough corner. I guess it will all depend on how much hay McCain makes while the sun shines.