I realize you disagree and have surmised, possibly correctly, that Obama is simply immune from any and all possible meltdown. But as you like to say, we shall see.

So accuracy aside this is good media news for Clinton.

Not that I believe this poll, it is ARG.  

Still, SUSA says 18%. After the ridiculous remarks Obama made about PA voters, I see no reason to think the margin won't be at least that wide.

It would actually make sense for ARG to massage the numbers. The narrative could be again that Clinton has this huge gap due to snobgate, and then when the actual margin on election day is much narrower, they can talk about how well Obama weathered the controversy, just like Wright, voters forgave him, connected with him, etc.

The article shows a consistent pattern of the the race tightening in each state as the election gets closer. At this point it's much easier to conclude that the ARG poll is way way off, rather than that PA will be the unique example bucking the historical pattern.

Overall, the poll shows relatively little effect so far on Democrats nationally (which probably is mostly irrelevant to its impact on PA, I'd expect, where the effect could be quite considerable).

But once you get out of the Democrats, it's terrible news for Obama in the general.

By a 2-1 margin, unaffiliated voters disagree with his statement. By a 52-27 margin, moderate voters disagree.

And there's this nugget:

People who have followed the story are much more likely than other voters to disagree with Obama's statements and to consider them elitist. To date, just 25% have followed the news story Very Closely while another 30% have followed it Somewhat Closely.

Obama might be able to talk his way out of this mess among Democratic primary voters. Just the idea that voters "cling to religion" because they lost their jobs and hate Washington would be enough to doom a less-talented candidate. Lucky for him, though, this is not happening during the general election.  This episode does suggest that Obama might not be so different from the liberal elites in the Democratic Party whose disdain for middle-class, socially-conservative voters have led to defeat in so many presidential elections.

**

and this link that go to the heart of his helping downticket democrats thing:

That is the headline of a new L.A. Times article that talks about this poll.

It begins:

"New poll shows Barack Obama tanking in Pennsylvania

The first fresh poll results from Pennsylvania are in since Barack Obama's "bitter" comments about people in small towns exploded as a news story, and the findings could hardly be worse for the Democratic presidential contender.
"