FIRST IT WAS Chris Matthews getting a thrill up his leg when he thought of Barack Obama; then it was Newsweek giving Obama a free pass on everything; now it is Mark Halperin over at Time warning that the Charisma Machine is going to roll right over McCain in November, with the media’s hand on the wheel. How old McCain looks! How decrepit he is! How sick everyone (especially the press) is of everyone but Obama! How stunning he is! How inspiring he is! How “valuable” he makes people feel, telling them THEY are the ones they are waiting for. How “powerful” it will be when he debates John McCain on security issues, and comes out the better. How “forcefully” Obama will “move to the center as a mainstream, optimistic candidate,” celebrating both America’s greatness, and “change.” (And how great will it be when he ducks into the phone booth, and out comes … never mind.)

Anything can happen, in the Belmont Stakes and in politics, and perhaps Halperin is right in saying McCain underestimates Obama’s pizzazz, and the desire of the press to promote it. But it is also possible he overestimates both Obama, and the power of journalists, himself among them. Love is blind, or at least short-sighted, and there are some warning signs he has missed: