It is a bad thing now apparently:

[I]t should be pointed out that a non-profit group focusing efforts on registering unmarried women in presidential primaries has to know that their activities will almost certainly help Hillary Clinton, as that is probably her strongest demographic.

Unbelievable.

Barack Obama's campaign filed a complaint with the FEC today over a 527 group's ad attacking Obama's economic plan for having no specifics.

He didn't always feel that way about 527 ads. When a group supporting John Edwards aired one in Iowa he was critical, saying:

You can't just talk the talk. The easiest thing in the world is to talk about change during election time."

But when a 527 group aired a shameful ad on Spanish radio stations in Nevada that re-injected ethnicity into the campaign, an ad that supported him and attacked Hillary in Nevada,

A spokesman for Obama, Bill Burton, did not condemn the ad or the independent spending specifically, but instead attacked Clinton.

More...

NOTE - Page Gardner responds. I am curious about this story, via Atrios:

N.C. residents have reported receiving peculiar automated calls from someone claiming to be "Lamont Williams." The caller says that a "voter registration packet" is coming in the mail, and the recipient can sign it and mail it back to be registered to vote. No other information is provided. The call is deceptive because the deadline has already passed for mail-in registrations for North Carolina's May 6 primary.

(Emphasis supplied.) As far as political dirty tricks go, this is a pretty bad one. If the deadline for registering has passed, either someone has registered or they haven't. How does "tricking" them into thinking they can still register help any candidate? My point is this sounds like incompetence, not malevolence.

But when Hillary Clinton is involved, the search for malevolence is relentless:

Nice get for Obama. Baron Hill is a conservative Dem in the hard fought (it has flipped in each of the last three elections) Southern Indiana 9th District. I assume that absent the repudiation of Rev. Wright, this would not have been publically announced.

Clinton picked up the endorsement of Bill George, President of the PA AFL-CIO and Rep. Braley of Iowa came out for Obama.

Update (TL): If there are more today, we'll update here.

Chelsea gets her mom a new superdelegate:

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There are other things going on in the world beyond a discussion about a pastor. For example, Atrios writes:

It appears the Atlantic has hired a pretentious commentless blogging git whose gullible advocacy led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. How he manages to live with himself is a mystery, and why The Atlantic thinks we should live with him is a deeper one.

Surprisingly, Atrios is not discussing Andrew Sullivan. With Obama love, all is forgiven.

This is an Open Thread.

Digby draws larger lessons for Democrats from the Wright Fiasco:

Amy Sullivan, one of the primary proponents of putting religiosity at the center of Democratic politics doesn't seem to know what to make of the problems Wright has caused for Obama. Apparently, she never considered the possible downsides of hewing so closely to religion that people think it's definitional. She and he friends didn't seem to realize that all the blather about secular Democrats was never about religion, but about social conservatism. You get no points for going to the "wrong kind" of church. You'd think they would have figured that out a long time ago.

Indeed. In my first post at TalkLeft, I discussed the dangers of Obama's Dem bashing on religion. Walter Shapiro argues that the chickens have come home to roost:

Josh Marshall and Noam Scheiber try to get ahead of the Wright curve by anticipating the next question - why did Obama choose Wright as his pastor. I believe their efforts are counterproductive. Scheiber chooses a passage from David Mendell's Obama biography to attempt to explain why Obama chose Wright as his pastor. In fact, the entire exercise is condescending. I believe most people are either brought up in a faith chosen by their parents or are drawn to its religious tenets. Obama himself has said that it was Wright who brought him to accept Jesus Christ as his savior. To wit, it was Wright's persuasiveness about Christianity being the "true religion" that made Obama choose Wright as his pastor. Not in Mendell's telling, now endorsed by Scheiber and Marshall. More . . .

Looks like all we'll be hearing about for the next few days is the cost of gas. Anyone remember when big engines were all the rage?

Little GTO, you're really lookin' fine
Three deuces and a four-speed and a 389
Listen to her tachin' up now, listen to her why-ee-eye-ine
C'mon and turn it on, wind it up, blow it out GTO

What was your first car? Mine was a 1957 Austin Healey 100-6 I bought in 1966 with $300.00 I saved from my after school job. After that it was Mustang convertibles for me.

This is an open thread, see you all tomorrow.

Hillary Clinton has released a new ad in Indiana criticizing Barack Obama for opposing the suspension of the gas tax.

Hillary's plan: Use the windfall profits of the oil companies to pay to suspend the gas tax this summer. Barack Obama says "No."

People are hurting, it's time for a President who's ready to take action now.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said today that it would be “the height of political foolishness” for Democrats to back a Republican, or not vote at all, if they’re disappointed by the outcome of the long-running nomination battle between her and Barack Obama.

“Anyone, anyone, who voted for either of us should be absolutely committed to voting for the other” in the general election, Clinton said during an hourlong meeting with The Indianapolis Star Editorial Board. “I’m going to shout that from the mountaintops and the valleys and everywhere I can, no matter what the outcome of the nominating process is.”

...“no matter what the differences are between Senator Obama and myself, they pale in comparison to the differences we have with Senator McCain and the Republicans.”

More...

More than enough has been written, here and everywhere else, about Barack Obama and his relationship with Jeremiah Wright.

What I'm wondering now, is how does his campaign get past this in time for North Carolina and Indiana? How does it affect the superdelegates? From tomorrow's New York Times:

Bob Mulholland, a superdelegate from California, said that the difficulty Mr. Obama has experienced had put a premium on what happens in the remaining contests.

“We’ve got nine elections to go through June 9,” he said in an interview. “I’ve never been involved in a successful presidential race where the candidate had no trouble in the primary. It’s challenging to him. He is a young man and this is the first time he’s run for president. I see this as a learning experience.”

Asked how he though Mr. Obama was doing, Mr. Mulholland paused before responding. “Getting better,” he finally said.

Other questions: Did Obama alienate some of his African American base with his repudiation of Rev. Wright today? Will it cost him votes in North Carolina?

Assuming the public believes Obama was sincere in renouncing Wright and sorry about his misjudgment of him, will they conclude Obama just isn't ready to be entrusted with the serious judgment calls a President must make?

More....

Elizabeth Edwards was on Countdown tonight. She said there's no reason for her husband, her or Gore to endorse. It wouldn't stop the "bloodletting" between the candidates and settle anything. In other words, endorsements are of limited value.

She also said while she prefers Hillary's health plan to Obama's, she's glad that both provide for universal coverage.

E.J. Dione wondered whether Edwards might not get back in the race as the only electable candidate. He wasn't serious, but it's an interesting thought.