We've Got to Stop Meeting Like This

If WAPO is right, this photo documents Obama’s first Fall appearance on behalf of a Democratic Congressional candidate in these mid-term elections … just days before the big shebang. With the soaring ’08 victory in mind, it’s just painful to see a shot like this, party favorite Tom Periello treating Obama a little like Kryptonite and Obama hedging as much as holding.

Maybe what the shot captures is a classic Dem characteristic: smelling the fear.

(image: Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images. caption: US President Barack Obama shakes hands with Congressman Tom Perriello, D-Va, during a rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, on October 29, 2010, ahead of midterms elections.)