They're not hysterical about this at all.

The debilitating effect of the cabinet appointment fiasco is clearly nowhere as large as the cognoscenti would suggest.

People are voting for Conservatives in greater numbers, but it's not translating into Conservative seats.

This much change in this period of time -- especially given how little we've seen previously -- suggests there have probably been a lot of conversations over Christmas dinner. Something is going on: some form of intellectualizing or rumination.

If I was Harper right now, I'd go right into Quebec and hold big rallies. Big balloons and marching bands and just feel-good stuff.

Harper has been able to make himself more or less impervious to the attack that we have seen to this point and has been able to defuse the notion that winning is somehow going to be horrendous for the nation.