Here is what is making a difference.

McCain's ad w/Paris Hilton and Brittney Spears was brilliant. While all the cable and talk radio pundits were screaming about the celebrity issue, the swing states where the ad actually ran shows the voters were listening to the main message of that commercial the punditocracy conveniently overlooked: Obama and offshore drilling.

The message: Obama cares more about his own celebrity, than the fact that you little guys are hurting over gas prices. I'm FOR offshore drilling, so you get relief at the pump.

Obama betrayed the entire environmental movement, not just me.

And the environment happens to be the one issue that is sacred to me. I already knew Obama wouldn't share my views about the war, and it was utterly predictable that he wouldn't stand up to the Republicans on FISA, for fear of being swift boated on national security.

But as I said, the cause of the environment was the crown jewel in the Obama platform.

No more.

He may have done more, single handedly, to drive voters into the arms of Ralph Nader, than anything Nader could have hoped to do in a million years.

And that is not A Good Thing.

The Gang of Ten proposal was a last ditich desperation measure, to give the Republicans more fodder for their campaign commercials they'll be working on during their "summer vacations".

Obama flipped, because of the polls (he has tanked in the wake of his Europe visit/the McCain ads), or because somebody in the energy industries got to him.

It is that simple.