Campaign Coverage Quote of the Day

"It’s quite obvious how this Clinton campaign is going to be covered by the media. Most of the visible manifestations will be soap opera, those kinds of mannered, Dowdian questions of which the press never seems to tire: Is she connecting, is she being 'authentic,' is she acting too 'ambitious,' is she wearing the right pantsuit, what’s up with her hair today, how is Bill behaving." -- Michael Tomasky, writing in the Daily Beast.  Tomasky's correct when he says she needs to "go big" with her policy prescriptions, and disengage from the soap opera narrative the media -- and the Rethugs feeding them -- want to cover.

The superficial details and the optics will almost certainly crowd out a lot of the serious policy messages from the Clinton campaign.  Then there's the faux scandal mongering.  The private e-mails were the first shiny object the press has been following this season, but there will be more, no question.  Remember the "-gate" parade of non-scandals ginned up by the right during the Clinton presidency?  Nothing came of them, but they were the daily bread of our broken media.  Expect more of the same.

BONUS:  As if on cue, the waspish Maureen Dowd copies off Republican talking points for her latest lame screed.  You can write her columns in advance.