An interesting column from an old friend and mentor, Terry Michael, director of the Washington Center for Politics and Journalism and former spokesman for the late Sen. Paul Simon. He argues that Barack Obama and John McCain, as they prepare for their debates, ought to be paying attention to how voters are judging them with “high quality emotional intelligence, or “Blink” think a la Malcolm Gladwell.

What used to be called women’s intuition and can now be termed Blink thinking (by Malcolm Gladwell) is a better guide to analyzing voters than the political press’ apparent vision of citizens working their way through a checklist of The Issues published by the League of Women Voters.

That brings us to the puzzle facing about half of the electorate, political and media elites, who can’t fathom why Obama, with domestic policies favored by solid majorities, isn’t far ahead of Sen. John McCain, saddled with a nose-diving economy, a disastrous war, and one of the most unpopular GOP incumbents in history.