Today's Roger Simon story in the Politico has the headline "Buzz Eludes McCain Despite Efforts." Which efforts are those? Well, the article mentions two: McCain's new television spot and a lunch McCain hosted for some political reporters at his Crystal City, Virginia, headquarters the other day. That latter "effort" figures more heavily into the story, which figures, since the story would not have been written if McCain's campaign hadn't made in the first place the "effort" to corral and feed a bunch of reporters. Which means that, actually, this "effort" did succeed in generating some "buzz," if a story in the Politico counts as buzz, which I (and Simon, presumably) think it does. The more important "effort" here is the television ad, which may, in the end, achieve something much more important than "buzz": getting people to vote for John McCain. And we won't know whether that effort is or is not a success until January 8, 2008. A more accurate headline would have read: "McCain Trying to Become the 44th President of the United States." Of course, no one would have read that story, because it isn't news. So the true worth of the story, the headline writers suggest, is that McCain has failed to get the media behind him like he did in 2000. But this isn't exactly true, either, as the article itself proves, since Simon still wrote, and the Politico still published, a more or less sympathetic portrait of McCain. What would we do without political journalists? (Wait. Don't answer that!)