DAVID BROOKS: Where’s the landslide? “Why isn’t Barack Obama doing better? Why, after all that has happened, does he have only a slim two- or three-point lead over John McCain, according to an average of the recent polls? Why is he basically tied with his opponent when his party is so far ahead?”

And it’s happening in spite of all the pro-Obama media cheerleading, too. I think this indicates the power of alternative media, where the stories on Obama aren’t nearly so cheerleaderish. As we saw with polling on the surge — which showed public perceptions improving in advance of the Legacy Media coverage — blogs, etc., are now having influence directly, not simply by impacting the coverage of traditional journalists.