I'm Too Tired to Come Up with a Title

The massive Civil War project at work passed another milestone tonight, but while that means that it's getting closer to completion, it also means that it's pretty much full-court press time until it crosses the finish line (is that enough mixed metaphors for you?). The implication of that, of course, is that I don't have any time to offer much on the blog. Fortunately, though, once again through the good people at Behind the Times (subscription wall) (who could still stand to change their font), I noticed that in her Wednesday column, Maureen Dowd combines a couple of the primary interests at Talk Talk Talk Talk Talk central. Take a look:

In mythic tales from "Superman" to "Star Wars" to "Spider-Man," there comes a moment when the young superhero has to learn to harness his powers. That's the challenge Barack Obama faces now.

Clearly, the 45-year-old senator is blessed with many gifts. He can write and talk, think and walk, with exceptional grace and agility.

When he wants to, Mr. Obama can rouse the crowd to multiple ovations, as he did yesterday when he talked with a preacher's passion about the "quiet riot" of frustration of blacks in this country, on issues like Katrina, in a speech before black clergy at Hampton University in Virginia.

But often he reverts to Obambi, tentative about commanding the stage and consistently channeling the excitement he engenders. At times, he seems to be actively resisting his phenom status and easy appeals to emotion. When he should fire up, he dampens. When he should dominate, he's deferential. When he should lacerate, he's languid.

Futilely, he chafes at the notion that debates and forums are rituals for showing a sense of command with a forceful one-liner, a witty takedown or a "shining city on a hill" moment. He keeps trying to treat them as places where he can riff, improvise, soothe, extrapolate or find common ground. He skitters away from the subtext of political contests, the need to use your force to slay your opponents.

Bless her (and/or her copy editor)--she even gets the Spider-Man hyphen right.

And by the way, yes, Dowd is talking about Hillary. She does it more explicitly in the piece itself, but here's her big close:

The Boy Wonder cannot take over the country unless he can take on Wonder Woman.

I guess Barack, the Boy Wonder, is better than some other things he's been called lately.