A Long Summer

The nominees are chosen, election interest is in temporary decline, and all indicators seem to be pointing to a long summer ahead of us.

Case in point is a feature that Slate ran yesterday looking at what happens to humans' brains as they age and how that might affect John McCain during a campaign and the presidency. Admittedly, the piece was very tongue-in-cheek, but still. Really?

What set the piece apart is that it offered substantially nothing to the presidential debate or our understanding of the candidates. No policy positions, no real personality insight, just the idea that McCain is old and when people get old their brains change.

It's the official mark of the doldrums. From here through the conventions, we're going to see a lot more stories like this and a lot more meaningless skirmishes about semantics and the like. Brace yourself for a long summer.