Some recent comments by mainstream media columnists have missed the point on a major paradigm shift that aided Democrats in the 1992 and 1996 presidential elections.

Comments have been made that, in the same manner as the current McCain campaign strategy, the focus was on avoiding issues and dealing with personalities, as evidenced by the Swift Boat campaign of 2004, the "Gore as serial exaggerator" in 2000 and the infamous Willie Horton campaign of 1988.

Certain commentators have treated the 1992 campaign as an aberration, with some explaining that Lee Atwater was near death and this changed the campaign dynamic.  It did not do so anymore than Steve Schmidt replacing Karl Rove.  

In 1992 Atwater was simply replaced with lobbyist-campaign manager Charlie Black, who is back aboard in this election working for John McCain.  

Joe Klein's column in Time June 18 represents a window into his current thinking as he along with other mainstream media figures spin the ongoing Democratic Party presidential primary contest.

In viewing Klein on television and reading his ongoing commentary in both Time and Newsweek he maintains a steady pattern cautioning Democrats against straying too far to the left, and that ignoring basic rules of politics pertaining to the "vital center" will result in potential calamity for the party.  

In his June 18 column Klein was particularly dismayed by the level of antagonism and verbal hammering he received on Time's blogging site, Swampland, after reporting an anticipated vote of Representative Jane Harman of California on the Iraq War funding bill.  

When Representative Harman changed her mind and voted against the bill after earlier telling Klein that, after a personal visit to Iraq, she had decided to vote for it, the political journalist describes an angry deluge that descended on him that he believes could auger badly for the Democratic Party should this conduct continue.