Those internal memos “leaked” by campaigns, ostensibly to give a glimpse of strategic discussions among top operatives, are beginning to take on the look of glorified press releases. Take the one that Meg Whitman’s campaign sent to Jon Fleischman over at the FlashReport (and then reverbed in a blast email to reporters).

Addressed to Mike Murphy, Whitman’s chief strategist, by her public opinion consultants John McLaughlin and David Hill, the memo has absolutely no intrinsic value, no analysis that Murphy, a veteran and savvy political hack, would ever find useful.

They walk through recent poll results from Rasmussen and Field surveys, which show Whitman’s widening lead over GOP opponent Steve Poizner and the tie that she’s basically pulled into with the Democrats’ presumptive nominee, Jerry Brown:

“At this time, these media polls are very good news for Meg Whitman’s candidacy. The campaign is showing a strong early foundation for winning. We are just over two months from the Republican primary and Meg Whitman’s lead is large and growing against a very popular opponent.

“Looking ahead to the general election, it is still early, but these numbers are very encouraging.  To be tied with the incumbent Attorney General who is a former Governor, and is now the unchallenged Democratic candidate for Governor, again, is a truly remarkable achievement for newcomer Meg Whitman.

“Steve Poizner’s poor numbers against Meg Whitman in the primary allow him only to play a spoiler’s role trying to raise Whitman’s negatives. In the end, Steve Poizner is too far behind to win. A continuation of Poizner’s primary bid only serves to help Jerry Brown.”

(Back to their old tricks, still trying to push Poizner out!)

“Of course, the Meg Whitman for Governor campaign has a long way to go; however, we can only be encouraged by the voters’ positive reaction to Meg Whitman’s candidacy and her message.”

That’s a pep talk, not an analysis! Probably written by someone in the communications dept. Here’s the memo I would have liked to have seen, stripped of self-consciousness, crafted with a jaded eye – perhaps a memo that Murphy might write:

From: Mike Murphy

To:  Whitman’s political team

cc: Meg Whitman

OK, guys, polls are showing a lot of strengths out there. The money is working. Keep it coming, Meg! We’re defining both Meg and Steve nicely: Meg as outsider businesswoman who will get the job done, Poizner as wheenie faux-conservative who you just can’t trust.

But, people, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We have to avoid peaking too early. And with two months left in the primary, the elephant in the room is the $19 million Poizner has sitting in his campaign vault.

We thought we could draw him out with our attack ads, but he’s kept eerily, zen-like quiet, outside of maybe $800,000 worth of response buys. He said he would be firing back “very soon,” but it’s looking more and more like he’s sticking with his original game plan. And that’s to unload $19 million in the last four-five weeks of the campaign.

We have to prepare for that. Really, the best thing we could do is to continue to apply pressure for him to abandon the race. Keep the defections coming, Tucker! We need to exploit our free media friends — I know, I know, we’re in a post-print world, but sometimes you gotta use ‘em — and push the story line that he’s toast, that more Republicans are calling on him to quit, more want a unified team, etc.

If that doesn’t work, we can’t just sit there and wait for the assault. We all know what $19 million in a five-week period could do. We won’t have time to respond, or at least get the last, loudest word. Our media buys have been far less than $19 million so far– and that’s been over a 6-month period, and it’s been considered as dominant as it gets. Imagine the devastating impact of even more nasty ads in a condensed period.

Voters still don’t know e-Meg, so it’s not too late for Poizner to fill in the gaps. That’s my greatest fear. And there’s plenty of stuff out there to start weakening her image. Don’t get me started on her voting record and her Boxer donation (sorry, boss).

We need to get more bio stuff on Meg — I don’t want to come down too harshly on creative, but those 30-minute infomercials aren’t going to cut it, folks. Aren’t there more testimonials we can generate out of eBay, this time with real folks who made it big because of eBay? But we also need to send some Pershing missiles out, blast Poizner with some real H-Bombs.

Listen folks, our lead seems insurmountable. We’ve made some good inroads with voters, and it looks like we’ve got things under control. I like the inevitablity play, adjusting our sights to Brown as if we’re already in general election mode. But if we start taking Republican primary voters for granted, Poizner starts pummeling the airwaves just when voters are starting to pay attention — and our poll numbers start to drop (really, there’s only one way to go from a 63 to 19 point lead, and it’s down) — the narrative starts to shift, and things start to get uncomfortable.

Just remember. The Brooklyn Dodgers were 13 1/2 games ahead of the New York Giants in mid-August and lost the pennant in 1951. The Philadelphia Phillies had a six 1/2 game lead with 12 games to go in 1964, and lost the pennant. The Cubs led by 9 1/2 games with six weeks to go in 1969, but it was the Amazing Mets that went to the World Series that year. And don’t get me started on the 14 1/2 game lead the Red Sox blew to the Yankees in ’78!

You get the idea. Big leads are made to be blown. Let’s not blow it.

Murph.