AUGUST IS THE CRUELEST MONTH (If you are Barack Obama)

August is the worst month of the year. Think about it. The only real thing you do in August is get ready for September. It is the most meaningless part of the baseball season, stuck there between the All Star Game and September when the pennant races start to matter. For football fans August is the month of pre-season games so you can get ready for the season's start in September. Its the month where you shop for back to school clothes and supplies. Even in politics, the candidates are spending time cuing up, getting ready for the end of August beginning of September Conventions and the start of the REAL Campaign.

To make matters worse August was the first 31 day month. Over two thousand years ago, Augustus Caesar hijacked a day out of February to make the month named after him longer than the others, well except for July which also hijacked a day out of February to honor Uncle Julius (too bad there wasn't a Freddie Caesar to even things out a bit).

This year's August may turn out to be a bit different. There is excitement, good and bad, that may ease the ennui of waiting for September. Heck the Jets got Bret Farve which may guarantee five wins this year instead of the normal three. Even more important is the fact that this political campaign for president, which seems to have started way before the last one was over, has shown signs of significance BEFORE the conventions.

Originally this campaign was supposed to be over in July, Senator Barack Obama was SUPPOSED to run away with things. But that all changed with the Senator's trip around the world which, if he loses, will be seen as one the the greatest political blunders in history. The senator didn't make any major blunders in protocol or speech. He simply showed the country the extent to which he is full of himself.

August will be seen as the month when Senator McCain took advantage of Obama's arrogance, his presidential seal, presidential plane, and acting as if he was already the president as he met with foreign leaders. Obama's mission on the trip was to LOOK presidential, he took it too far and WAS presidential. America does not like it when people count their chickens. McCain's "Celebrity" commercials may have been criticized by some, but they ARE working. The only thing that Obama has been able to reply with is a weak "well I know you are but what am I?" spot called Embrace.

August is also the month where Obama pulled off his second major blunder of the Campaign, The Race Card. Personally I don't blame him for trying. Face the facts, when Bill Clinton made what seemed to be insensitive comments during the Primary season, it gave Obama a MAJOR boost. When the Jr. Senator from Illinois began orating that the Republican's will try to make voters frightened because his face wasn't the same as Lincoln's, McCain did what Clinton should have, he jumped right on it, and not in a whiny way. He called it a disgusting tactic, and took the "Race Card" out of Obama's hand.

The remaining issues that heated up during the August doldrums, were ones that McCain "lucked" into.

Iraq, is now seen, even by the liberal media as an impending victory for America. As one of the first proponents of the surge it can't cant hurt McCain. But it should have taken a key issue out of his hands. Obama's mid-summer fumble of his key issue, withdrawal of the troops made his liberal base a bit skittish.

Since he pushed past Clinton in the Polls, Senator Obama has made the economy his number one issue. Before he wanted to get the troops out of Iraq so we could move them to Afghanistan, the Senator wanted to move them out of Iraq to save money and help the poor. As gas neared 5 bucks/gallon in July, McCain saw what was necessary and flip-flopped on his early anti-drilling stance. By August, the number one economic issue was Oil Prices, the people want domestic drilling and NOW. Lead by House Speaker Pelosi, the Democratic party is seen as unreasonably entrenched in an anti-Drilling stance and Obama became boxed in. Even when he tried to say that maybe a little drilling would be OK, it was seen as a major flip-flop for the Senator.

Last week, Russia invaded Georgia and now looks to replace its democratically elected government with a Russian puppet. This happened on a Republican watch, where the Secretary of State is a Russian Expert. Her eyes were taken off the ball because she was wasting her time trying to appease the Fatah and Hezbollah terrorist and their enablers in Iraq. Normally this would strike back at McCain the Republican candidate. Russia has been an issue where McCain has been stronger than the President. George Bush once said that he looked into Putin's soul and saw a good man. McCain he looked into Putin's soul and saw K-G-B. The Russia/ Georgia issue underscores the need for a President with foreign policy experience, which favors McCain over Obama.

August is typically not a pretty month, hot, humid, chubby people in Speedos, we would have been better of if Augustus Caeser's name was Juno, because this is not the month that you would want to be any longer than it had to be. Well, except if you are John McCain and your competitor is Barack Obama. With almost three months left before the election there is too much that can change.But IF McCain is the next President of the United States (and that is still a big If) history will show that this too long of a campaign season turned, in this too long of a month.