Keep it Close

Ezra Klein flags the media taking the one poll in 13 that shows a close national race. While at this points it's pretty damn easy to paint a picture that shows Obama running away with this, it's actually in no one's interest to show the election as a beat down. Obama doesn't want his voters to get compliant. McCain doesn't want his voters to despair. And the media doesn't want to cover a lopsided affair. They want drama, hard-fought, down-to-the-wire action, very much like the last couple of elections. And so they will get that kind of race, even if they need to invent it out of whole cloth.