* Glenn Greenwald on the dispiriting significance of that big Times piece on Obama and his “kill list,” what it says about Obama’s character, and the lack of real differences between the parties on national security.

“Now his campaign these days is trying to find a twig to hang on to, some little excuse they can grab and say, ‘Look, things are getting a little better, aren’t they?’ And the answer is yeah, things are getting a little better in a lot of places in this country, but it’s not thanks to his policies.”

The ups and downs of the weeks, or who wins which news cycle, or the short-term ebb and flow of partisan exchanges, are almost completely irrelevant to how anyone will vote in November. No swing voters — zero, out of all those millions of voters — will ultimately care at all what Cory Booker said about the rollout of Obama’s attacks on Bain.

I’m not convinced that Lugar’s willingness to campaign for Mourdock will make much difference in the Senate race there — odds are that Mourdock will win either way, and if he does get himself in trouble campaigning, I don’t see strong evidence that Lugar could bail him out.

It’s still very early to put any serious weight on the head-to-head horse-race polls. For what it’s worth, President Obama is leading by a tick or two (just under a single percentage point in Pollster’s trend lines, a bit more than one point in the Real Clear Politics poll-of-polls average), but I wouldn’t pay much attention to that. Remember that horse-race polls can take a while to catch up to the underlying fundamentals of the race, and also that they can be distorted by short-term bumps.

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]]> http://feeds.washingtonpost.com/click.phdo?i=e2e63af6d779c042fd206db30af4ec52 http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/sunday-open-thread/2012/05/27/gJQAp1WAuU_blog.html?wprss=rss_plum-line http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/sunday-open-thread/2012/05/27/gJQAp1WAuU_blog.html?wprss=rss_plum-line http://www.washingtonpost.com/Fragment/SysConfig/WebPortal/twpweb/rss/mobile/blog-entry.jpp?id=1001.4.1822586807 http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/sunday-open-thread/2012/05/27/gJQAp1WAuU_blog.html?wprss=rss_plum-line http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/sunday-open-thread/2012/05/27/gJQAp1WAuU_blog.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/sunday-open-thread/2012/05/27/gJQAp1WAuU_search.html 1001.4.1822586807 4dab03b8-a7f7-11e1-8e98-45f02ae6be92 Sun, 27 May 2012 07:28:00 EST Sun, 27 May 2012 07:28:51 EST 20120527122851 The Washington Post /WashingtonPost/Content/Blogs/plum-line/201205/plumline-sargent-thread-5-27.xml /WashingtonPost/Content/Blogs/plum-line/201205/plumline-sargent-thread-5-27.xml BlogStory BlogStory The Washington Post This week’s Post poll underscores yet again that Mitt Romney is benefitting from what you might call the presumption of economic competence. As Jamelle noted below, the poll finds that 47 percent of Americans trust Romney to do a better job on the economy, while 46 percent trust Obama, suggesting voters are open to the premise that Romney’s private sector experience has left him equipped to turn around a whole country’s economy. Among struggling white voters this is far more pronounced.

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]]> http://feeds.washingtonpost.com/click.phdo?i=2e5794fd7eb03933e9f29e92889f33cb http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/open-thread/2012/05/26/gJQAkTNvrU_blog.html?wprss=rss_plum-line http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/open-thread/2012/05/26/gJQAkTNvrU_blog.html?wprss=rss_plum-line http://www.washingtonpost.com/Fragment/SysConfig/WebPortal/twpweb/rss/mobile/blog-entry.jpp?id=1001.4.1789422506 http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/open-thread/2012/05/26/gJQAkTNvrU_blog.html?wprss=rss_plum-line http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/open-thread/2012/05/26/gJQAkTNvrU_blog.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/open-thread/2012/05/26/gJQAkTNvrU_search.html 1001.4.1789422506 9395bf24-a727-11e1-9e73-f4e3879b34a3 Sat, 26 May 2012 06:41:00 EST Sat, 26 May 2012 06:41:58 EST 20120526114158 The Washington Post /WashingtonPost/Content/Blogs/plum-line/201205/plumline-sargent-thread-5-26.xml /WashingtonPost/Content/Blogs/plum-line/201205/plumline-sargent-thread-5-26.xml BlogStory BlogStory The Washington Post