(Washington Post Photo)

Dana Milbank has a great article in today's Washington Post about how the mainstream media reporters came out of their stupor today to grill Barack Obama -- on NAFTA, on Rezko, on whether he will lose the Jewish vote and on his record. (Transcript is here.)

It took many months and the mockery of "Saturday Night Live" to make it happen, but the lumbering beast that is the press corps finally roused itself from its slumber Monday and greeted Barack Obama with a menacing growl.

The day before primaries in Ohio and Texas that could effectively seal the Democratic presidential nomination for him, a smiling Obama strode out to a news conference at a veterans facility here. But the grin was quickly replaced by the surprised look of a man bitten by his own dog.

Obama was clearly flustered. [More...]

A new poll by the Washington Post and ABC News finds 2/3 of Democrats believe Hillary Clinton should stay in the presidential race if she wins either Texas or Ohio. The poll results are here.

As between Ohio and Texas, it seems to me the media is concentrating too much on Texas, which is all but certain to go Republican in November.

By contrast, as I've written several times this week, and as at least the Minneapolis Star Tribune is now reporting, Ohio could go either way in November.

[Texas] will likely be largely ignored by the eventual nominees this fall even as Ohio is avidly courted. It has become so completely Republican that no Democrat has been elected to a statewide office in the past 14 years.

No Republican has been elected President without winning Ohio since Abe Lincoln. The only Democrats in the past century to become President without winning Ohio were FDR and JFK.

Which Democratic nominee in recent history won Ohio? Bill Clinton -- twice. Why? Because unlike Al Gore and John Kerry, he won southeastern Ohio. Gore and Kerry won big in Northern Ohio but lost the state to Bush.

CNN tongiht said there is a huge ice storm and flood warnings in the state and the hyperactive weatherman said it's so bad polling places may be closed in that area. [Corrected to reflect that the ice storms are not expected in the southeastern portion of the state.]

As for what to watch for in Ohio, this should get you started.

Larry King Live tonight did a few segments on Rock the Vote and the effort to get out the youth vote.

While it appears the young favor Obama so far in this election, it should be remembered that Rock the Vote and young voters were instrumental in electing Bill Clinton President. You can watch him here, crediting them.

This is from my personal collection of old VCR tapes -- I converted it and got it on You Tube last night. It's from a certain 1993 Inaugural Ball. Check out Hillary and Chelsea too.

Update: Reporters quizzed Obama about Rezko today in Texas.

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Chicago Sun Times reporter Lynne Sweet disagrees with Obama advisor David Axelrod that Obama answered the media's questions about Tony Rezko. In addition to her own experiences, she points to this April 27, 2007 news clip.

Sweet writes today:

For more than a year, that has been a pretty small group of investigative journalists—from the Chicago Sun-Times and the Chicago Tribune. I checked with the Sun-Times reporters before I wrote my column and rechecked again. They all said they have never had a chance to discuss Rezko with Obama.

More...

Obama on the campaign trail today, explaining why he is experienced to be President:

"Look, I've lived overseas," said Obama. "I have family overseas. I have served on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee."

I can't let that one pass. When did he live overseas? From the ages of 6 to 10 in Indonesia.

As to his service on the Foreign Relations Committee, do we need to mention again that the subcommittee on European Affairs that he chaired didn't hold a single hearing last year on NATO and Afghanistan, because he was too busy running for President?

By Big Tent Democrat

Via Marc Ambinder, this is funny:

The Canadian Embassy and our Consulates General regularly contact those involved in all of the Presidential campaigns and, periodically, report on these contacts to interested officials. In the recent report produced by the Consulate General in Chicago, there was no intention to convey, in any way, that Senator Obama and his campaign team were taking a different position in public from views expressed in private, including about NAFTA. We deeply regret any inference that may have been drawn to that effect.

Um, Canada? There was no inference. It is what your memo says happened. And let's not be idiots, of course it happened. And of course it is true. Politics is politics people.

Former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson (husband of Valerie Plame Wilson) writes in Huffington Post that Obama has shown "hollow" judgment on foreign affairs and has an empty record.

Among the points Wilson makes on Obama's 2002 statement on the Iraq War is one already conceded by Obama: that had he been in the Senate in 2003 and privy to the NIE and other information that the Senators were, he doesn't know how he would have voted:

During the 2002-2003 timeframe, he was a minor local official uninvolved in the national debate on the war so we can only judge from his own statements prior to the 2008 campaign. Obama repeated these points in a whole host of interviews prior to announcing his candidacy. On July 27, 2004, he told the Chicago Tribune on Iraq: "There's not much of a difference between my position and George Bush's position at this stage." In his book, The Audacity of Hope, published in 2006, he wrote, "...on the merits I didn't consider the case against war to be cut-and- dried." And, in 2006, he clearly said, "I'm always careful to say that I was not in the Senate, so perhaps the reason I thought it was such a bad idea was that I didn't have the benefit of US intelligence. And for those who did, it might have led to a different set of choices."

More...

By Big Tent Democrat

Note, this post has been corrected.

The latest PPP Texas poll has Clinton ahead 50-44, due to huge Latino advantage for Clinton.

I'll be updating this post with other Texas polling. As blogged earlier, Zogby has Obama up 3. Ras has it 48-47 Obama. Public Strategies has a 46-46 tie.

The world's greatest pollster, SUSA has Obama's lead in Texas slipping from 50-46 to 49-48:

Obama's momentum now slowed, and possibly stalled, according to SurveyUSA's final pre-Primary poll. . . . Now, Obama leads by 6/10ths of 1 point, effectively tied, and completely consistent with either candidate winning tomorrow by a narrow margin.

By Big Tent Democrat

From Obama

From Clinton:

For those wondering, the Obama ad is not available on YouTube. More . . .

By Big Tent Democrat

On a Media conference call, Clinton advisors were really touting the 3AM ad and arguing that it is working -- that voters are now focusing on the who is ready to be Commander in Chief question. One assumes they have polling that we do not.

In addition, they hammered the NAFTA question and the Obama advisor Goolsbee meeting with the Canadian consulate in Chicago. Howard Wolfson referred to it as NAFTA-Gate. In essence, Wolfson accused the Obama campaign of saying one thing in public in Ohio and something differently in private. Wolfson also stressed the dissembling from the Obama camp on the meeting. He pointed out that the Obama camp denied the meeting, then denied that even if there was a meeting, a discussion of NAFTA was denied. In essence, Wolfson is calling them dishonest. Me, I call them politicians and political operatives. That is what they ALL do.

By Big Tent Democrat

The new world's greatest pollster, Survey USA, has a new Ohio poll out showing Hillary Clinton extending her lead in Ohio from 6 to 10:

Hillary Clinton appears to stop the momentum of Barack Obama by converting voters focused on health care. . . . At the wire, it's Clinton 54%, Obama 44% . . . One week ago, Clinton led by 6. . . .

[T]he 16 minutes that Clinton spent arguing with Obama about health care at this week's NBC News debate appears to have paid off. Slightly more voters now name health care as the most important issue, and among those who do, Clinton today leads by 24 points, up from a 7-point lead last week.