I saw these "doldrums" coming a few months back.
Romney was always going to clinch the number of delegates well before the Republican convention and once he did, the only thing that could be of any interest would be his selection of vice president. I don't think he will reveal that choice before the convention when he has too reveal it. He likes being an enigma. So there was always a "downtime" in his campaign efforts of July and August.
In the public mind, everything stops for the Olympics. Once the USA starts winning medals, all eyes turn to the Olympics. That's the way sports is. I know there are "sports free" zones out there among the membership but the voters that are undecided are sports fans of the Medal winning variety. Cheer the USA. Ain't nothing wrong with that.
The other bit of "advance knowledge" is that the Supreme Court was never going to announce he biggest cases before the last week of the session. I still suspect that the health care act decision will be handed down on Thursday the last day of the term and that the Arizona Law decision will be before that. The most political decision in a decade was always destined for the end of the month, leaving June very quiet. Speculation on VP choice is raging among the talking classes of newspeople. Who cares until the convention?
The Obama Reelection Campaign can't start this early. People will burn out before the election. They are pushing back against Romney and doing their best to define Romney as unsuitable but this isn't the big campaign. This is all small stuff. The two bit reveals were the Gay Marriage decision (which came out in time for a fundraiser) ... (surely you don't believe I'm a political innocent?) and the Immigration Rules which were announced just in time to thwart Romney when he went before the Latino Organization. Good strategy.
The Supreme Court decisions will set at least one narrative of the campaign.
The vote on college loans will set a second narrative.
The vote on food stamps will buttress the second narrative.
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