A dispatch [1] from a correspondent, one T.F. Gumby, riding the campaign short bus (i.e., sitting around his thumb up his ass with WiFi on Waikiki):

McCain Displays Credentials as Obama Relaxes

HONOLULU - For the last several days, Senator Barack Obama has seemed to fade from the scene while on his secluded vacation here, as his opponent, Senator John McCain, has seized nearly every opportunity to display his foreign policy credentials on the dominant issue of the week: the conflict between Russia and Georgia.

Foreign policy credentials, eh? What follows must be Pulitzer worthy, uncovering the magical transformation of a dottering old dolt who doesn't know Shiite from Shinola.

...[T]he fluency with which Mr. McCain, the presumed Republican presidential nominee, discusses Georgia, citing the history of the region and the number of times he has visited, lends an aura of commander in chief. And as if he already had a cabinet, Mr. McCain said he was dispatching his allies Senators Joseph I. Lieberman, independent of Connecticut, and Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, to the region.

That's it. Seriously. The Maverick cuts and pastes from Wikipedia (or rather, has someone else cut and paste because he's too gaddam stoopid to use a computer) and gains an aura of commander in chief. This is the Paper of Record.

My God, it's full of stars.

Meanwhile, The Condi has landed. So don't worry folks, everything's gonna be hunky dory. The beleaguered Georgians are in good hands.