Sometimes it is easy to assume campaigns are captives of their own spin and don’t read or watch enough coverage to get themselves unspun. But on further inspection they might do well to steer clear of some of the pundits who are likely to get them even more muddled. There is this one on the Johnson affair:

And why did the Obama campaign, if they were standing on principle, decide to back down in the face of criticism? If Obama’s choice of Johnson was a mistake in the first place, then that’s one thing. But if the campaign doesn’t believe they made an error — and they don’t — why give the Republicans a trophy head?

Psst: there was no principle. It was a glaring error in judgment and they tried to fake their way through it for awhile.

This one which tells us this demonstrates Obama “has absorbed much from his crash-course in presidential campaigning. One lesson he has internalized is how to cut his losses quickly.” The latter pundit nevertheless does let on that Obama:

has yet to master the art of keeping his cool when someone (an opponent or the press) has the temerity to question his decision-making. We learn that his first instinct is to brush off criticism with a flick of a finger.

So I don’t envy those on the campaigns trying to get their bearings. In particular, there are plenty of mainstream media types anxious to encourage Obama’s worst tendencies: refusal to accept responsibility, paranoia about the right-wing attack machine, and determination to ignore facts which don’t fit the liberal policy agenda.

At least for John McCain there is no shortage of people telling him what to do and how to do it. That, by the way, is not a bad thing.