A new Washington Post - ABC News poll finds Rudy Giuliani's lead shrinking while Hillary maintains her advantage:

Giuliani remained the front-runner in the national poll, but his support has eroded. In a late-February Post-ABC News poll, 44 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents preferred Giuliani for the nomination; that figure is down to 33 percent. Support for McCain held steady at 21 percent.

Giuliani's support dipped in part because of the possible entry of former senator Fred Thompson (Tenn.) into the GOP race. Thompson ran third in this poll, with 9 percent, tying him with former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney.

As for the Democrats:

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Just so no one is in doubt that Rudy Giuliani either will change any position for a vote or is a dictator at heart who will trample our rights, here's his statement on today's Supreme Court decision upholding the the federal partial birth abortion ban,

“The Supreme Court reached the correct conclusion in upholding the congressional ban on partial birth abortion,” Giuliani said in a statement on the 5–4 decision. “I agree with it.”

In 2000, during his aborted run for the Senate, he promised differently:

...he said he would not vote to restrict a woman’s right to undergo the procedure. Now, with social conservatives believed to be a major factor in the GOP primary, Giuliani joined the other top-tier Republicans in applauding the court’s ruling.

Wasn't it just a few weeks ago he wanted to leave it to the states?

More below, including John Edwards and Barack Obama's criticism of the decision.

Is Rudy Giuliani running from his gun control message of years past, or his new message saying he's a Second Amendment supporter?

Rudy Giuliani is in Denver, but he canceled plans for a $1,000. a person fundraiser due to the Virginia Tech shootings. The parking valets were already in place when the cancellation notice was received -- just 30 minutes before the start of the event.

On this day of national tragedy, when we lost some of our finest to this senseless act, we stand together as a country to mourn those who lost their lives," Giuliani’s statement read. "My thoughts and prayers continue to be with the survivors and the many friends, colleagues and family members of those who perished. May God bless them all."

Is that really the reason?

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I have criticized Senator Barack Obama for the politics he is practicing. Some Obama supporters, as supporters do, take great umbrage at any criticism aimed at their candidate. But Obama and his supporters need to wake up to an emerging trend, Obama is losing support. Look at the trends:

CBS News Poll. April 9-12, 2007.

Obama 24

3/26-27/07 28

American Research Group poll. April 9-12, 2007.

Barack Obama 24

3/2-5 31

Time Poll conducted by Schulman, Ronca & Bucuvalas (SRBI) Public Affairs. April 5-9, 2007.
4/5-9/07

Barack Obama 26

3/23-26 30

Gallup Poll. April 2-5, 2007.

Barack Obama 19

3/23-25 22

I think the reason for this slippage is clear - Obama does not project an image of someone fighting against President Bush and Republicans. It seems to me that is what he has wanted to project. I think that if he does not get himself straightened out on this, the trend will continue.

Honestly, people think I just look for reasons to criticize Senator Barack Obama and his campaign but they must admit I do not need to look very hard. Look at what one of his key advisors Samantha Power said:

I got to talk a little bit about it with Samantha Power, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author on the subject of genocide and an informal advisor to Mr. Obama's campaign who is helping to write the speech. "We're going to hear something very unusual on the left, which is a genuine pride in what America can be again," she told me.

That is outrageous! This is Obama and his campaign in a nutshell - 'look how great I am, I am not like those other Dems who hate America, religion and Republicans.'

This is right out of the Joe Lieberman school. I am really fed up with the whole mindset of the Obama campaign - belittling Dems to try and make yourself look great is simply awful.

Previously I wrote that Barack Obama had not done an interview with Fox.

I was wrong, as Greg Sargent reports:

we checked in with the Obama campaign. They told us that, yes, it was an interview:

It was with Fox alone -- he did a series of interviews with cable and broadcast networks following McCain’s mention of him in his Iraq speech.

Now, does this mean Obama broke a pledge of a Fox "freezeout" as Matt Stoller charged? I don't know. I'll try and find out.

My friend Ed Kilgore writes an interesting piece that is marred by one of the sillier pieces of poliitical analysis I have seen in a while:

When you boil it all down, our last two presidential nominees, Al Gore and John Kerry, were rich in policy proposals and Shrumian "fighting" rhetoric, but largely bereft of any overarching message (Gore, to be more precise, had several messages, but couldn't settle on one for any length of time). Nobody needs Bob Shrum any more to convey an intention to "fight" Republicans. Obama is all message (the same message of beyond-polarization and reform that John Kerry rejected and Wesley Clark botched in 2004), and part of his early appeal is that he scratches a long-standing itch among message-starved Democratic and independent voters. It also enables him to simultaneously run to the left and right of his main rivals.

You see what Kilgore is saying? Kerry (and Gore I guess) lost because of rejection of the DLC message of "beyond polarization and reform." To which I say hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha! You must be joking. Kerry lost because he was viewed as not standing for anything. "Voted for it before I voted against it defined Kerry."

Some folks may get upset that some video of Barack Obama answering a question from a Fox News reporter was aired on Brit Hume's program. This is ridiculous. The context proves that Obama did absolutely nothing inconsistent or wrong:

The Obama interview occurred with a group of reporters asking questions, one of whom was from FNC.

Obama did not go on Fox, he held a press availability. Public figures and politicans can not exclude even fake news organizations like Fox from press availabilities.

Whatever the merits of the Fox Dem debate controversy, political candidates can not exclude news organizations from press conferences. That would be totally unacceptable imo. Obama, on this point, did absolutely nothing wrong.

Just another sign the John McCain candidacy is in trouble:

Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record)'s troubled presidential campaign is eliminating some non-senior staff positions and cutting some consultants' contracts.

The Arizona senator's campaign characterized the moves as "minor adjustments" that are part of an overall effort to revamp its fundraising office and budgeting operation.

I have to say I never considered him a serious contender. The battle will be between Rudy Giuliani and Mitch Romney. If Giulani shoots himself in the foot, which I expect he will, Newt Gingrich may step in.

I also don't think Tommy Thompson or Fred Thompson stand a chance. But it's still early. Can another Republican candidate emerge?

Via DavidNYC at Daily Kos: How out of touch is Rudy Giuliani? He doesn't even know the cost of a gallon of milk or a loaf of bread.

"A gallon of milk is probably about a $1.50, a loaf of bread about a $1.25, $1.30," he said.

A check of the Web site for D'Agostino supermarket on Manhattan's Upper East Side showed a gallon of milk priced at $4.19 and a loaf of white bread at $2.99 to $3.39. In Montgomery, Ala., a gallon of milk goes for about $3.39 and bread is about $2.

On Don Imus, Rudy says he'll still go on his program.

"I would appear on his program again, sure. I take him at his word," Giuliani said.

On the confederate flag,

Asked about the flying of the Confederate flag in some Southern states, Giuliani said, "That's a good "That's a good thing to be left on a state-by-state basis."

That's kind of like his revised abortion stance, it should be left up to the states. Will he take the same position on medical marijuana, and if elected, tell the Department of Justice not to raid co-ops or bust medical users in states that have legalized medical pot? I bet not. States' rights for some but not for all, right Rudy?

Matt Stoller discovers what some of us have known for a while, since last July - Obama has a lot to learn about politics:

[T]he Obama strategy of not challenging power structures is working to collect lots of money and push him up in the polls. But when that first negative ad hits, when he's smacked for caving to special interests or trying to have it both ways on Iraq, will he have the credibility to say that this is just the old way of doing politics? I don't know. But so far, the Democratic base is saying 'Why should I trust this guy?'. And he hasn't given us a good answer. He could. He could drop out of the Fox News CBCi debate. He could lead on Iraq. . . . There are many transformational 'bar fight' moments he could embrace. It's incumbent upon all Obama supporters to push him to do any of these things, so that he has a chance to become President and change the country. This country is crying out for change, and it's up to us to push our candidates to deliver it. We didn't do that in 2000 and 2004, and look where it got us.

Matt is right. So I have been saying since last July.

Minneapolis seems to be the domestic news hotspot today.

With the Republican convention scheduled to hit town next year, officials are worried about pigeon poop. So, they are going to send officials up to rooftops to spring out through trap doors and steal the pigeons' eggs after they are laid and before they hatch.

"We'll build them little condos. We'll keep taking the eggs, and they won't have little ones," said Bill Stephenson, the city's animal control supervisor. "Slowly they'll die off."

The scheme has the blessing of the St. Paul Audubon Society. Member Val Cunningham said pigeons aren't native, and their eggs aren't protected. If the plan works, "it would be sweet for the city," Cunningham said.

They considered but decided against contraceptives because they didn't want to sterilize eagles or hawks by mistake.

I've never lived in a city with pigeons, but don't they have feelings too? Where are the Republican right to lifers on this plan to kill the unborn?