and we're just living in it.

From the NYT:

Following the Script: Obama, McCain and ”The West Wing’ By BRIAN STELTER

When Eli Attie, a writer for ”The West Wing,” prepared to plot some episodes about a young Democratic congressman’s unlikely presidential bid, he picked up the phone and called David Axelrod.

Mr. Attie, a former speechwriter for Vice President Al Gore, and Mr. Axelrod, a political consultant, had crossed campaign trails before. ”I just called him and said, ”Tell me about Barack Obama,’ ” Mr. Attie said.

Days after Mr. Obama, then an Illinois state senator, delivered an address to the 2004 Democratic National Convention, the two men held several long conversations about his refusal to be defined by his race and his aspirations to bridge the partisan divide. Mr. Axelrod was then working on Mr. Obama’s campaign for the United States Senate; he is now Mr. Obama’a chief strategist.

Four years later, the writers of ”The West Wing” are watching in amazement as the election plays out. The parallels between the final two seasons of the series (it ended its run on NBC in May 2006) and the current political season are unmistakable.

Italics are mine.

Isn't it remarkable that 20 months into the Obama campaign, the New York Times doesn't pay any attention to the candidate's own 460 pages about "a boy's search for his father, and through that search a workable meaning for his life as a black American;" and how "I can embrace my black brothers and sisters, whether in this country or in Africa, and affirm a common destiny ..." and instead prints as fact the talking points of his hired gun spinmeister: "his refusal to be defined by his race and his aspirations to bridge the partisan divide"?