Carol Marin: Nepotitis. Unlike erectile dysfunction, the heartbreak of psoriasis or restless leg syndrome, there's no treatment for this one. No vaccine to prevent it. No antibodies to battle it. Nepotitis is that rabid contagion of the Illinois political persuasion that infects whole families. We witnessed another case of it just this week when state Senate President Emil Jones announced his sudden, post-primary retirement together with his plan to plant his son, Emil Jones III, on the November ballot.
It's August, people. Even crazed political junkies are more preoccupied with wringing the last sweet moments out of summer than with the play-by-play of the presidential race. More captivated by Michael Phelps slicing through Olympic water than by Mary Matalin's publishing house trying to Swiftboat yet another Democratic contender.
For the first time since 1984, after six successive appearances on the podium, the Rev. Jesse Jackson will not address the Democratic National Convention in Denver later this month.
Carol Marin: Finally, for John McCain, a week to smile about. "Obama fatigue," a virus that's afflicted the GOP presidential candidate for sometime now, was discovered in a new Pew survey to have spread to 48 percent of the populace. And recent national polls now place McCain and Barack Obama in a statistical dead heat. Gallup's numbers have Obama 46, McCain 43.
Remember Dudley Do-Right? The jut-jawed Canadian Mountie cartoon character on "Rocky and His Friends" and later, the subject of a 1999 Sarah Jessica Parker movie?
Political mystery No. 1: Is Bill Daley, mega-banker brother of Mayor Daley, ramping up to run for governor in 2010?
Carol Marin: The Obama campaign has a woman problem. How big? How small? It's not clear, but in a close election, small can be big. And Michelle Obama spoke to it Monday in Chicago. Departing from her prepared remarks, she cautioned a ballroom of applauding "Women for Obama" that despite their unwavering support, "there's a whole country out there that still needs a little convincing."
