Wright has been using black community leaders and churches to move quickly into politics.  Barry is a user.  Barak is a uniter.  So who is who?

A majority of American voters say that the furor over the relationship between Senator Barack Obama and his former pastor has not affected their opinion of Mr. Obama, but a substantial number say that it could influence voters this fall should he be the Democratic presidential nominee, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News Poll.

In other words, poll respondents seemed to be saying that their opinions of Obama had not been changed, but believed that the Wright controversy might affect other voters in the fall:

But nearly half of the voters surveyed, and a substantial part of the Democrats, said Mr. Obama had acted [to break with Rev. Wright] mainly because he thought it would help him politically, rather than because he had serious disagreements with his former pastor. The broader effect of the controversy on Mr. Obama's candidacy among Democratic primary voters was less clear in the poll, but enough of them expressed qualms about Mr. Obama's relationship with Mr. Wright to suggest it could sway a relatively small but potentially important group of voters in the remaining primaries.

The relatively small number of Democrats surveyed limits the conclusions that can be drawn about the poll's findings regarding sentiment in the party. Moreover, as a national poll, it does not necessarily reflect the thoughts of voters in Indiana and North Carolina.

[snip]

Still, the survey suggested that Mr. Obama, of Illinois, had lost much or all of the once-commanding lead he had held over Mrs. Clinton, of New York, among Democratic voters on the question of which of them would be the strongest candidate against Mr. McCain, of Arizona.

if "just Democrats" are slightly favoring Obama, but "Democrats and leaning Independents" are giving Clinton a big lead, what does this tell us about Obama's appeal to Independents?

Had he been 'honest' from the get-go, and not exploited the Wright controversy by trying to turn it into a national race issue, he had a shot at sounding credible.

He could have said that he affiliated himself with Wright when he was young and trying to figure out what it meant to be "black in America" -- that his understanding of that had matured and moved beyond's Wrights views, but that he'd remained with

the church

Clinton Steals One Show, While Obama Endures Another

Senator Barack Obama sat hunched on Sunday across the desk from Tim Russert on "Meet The Press" on NBC and wearily endured question after question about his relationship with the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr.

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton stood up from her armchair on Sunday to tower over George Stephanopoulos on "This Week" on ABC and merrily took on all critics, even the king of the Clinton-bashers, the talk-radio host Rush Limbaugh.

"He's always had a crush on me," Mrs. Clinton said with a sly smile.

Talk shows, even the more serious news programs, are never really about talk; they are about image and demeanor. Together, "Meet the Press" and its rival "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" provided an arresting tableau of the reversal of fortunes in the Democratic race. Mrs. Clinton was forceful, confident and at times even frisky as she easily deflected questions from Mr. Stephanopoulos and members of a town-hall-style meeting in Indianapolis. Mr. Obama, usually the one to see the humor in politics, instead looked grave and dispirited.

Perhaps this explains how Hillary Clinton can denounce Barack Obama

I know what I believe. And if it so happens that I agree with a right winger on some issue, then I am not going to change my mind on what I believe just because of that.

That is what distresses me about Obama's core supporters: their love for him appears to be more important than any principle, any belief, any idea of what I would call integrity.

Bill Clinton's triangulation dragged the Democratic party to the right and away from all of the principles that, from FDR through JFK, had made the Democratic party a great one.

I disagree. Bill Clinton saved the party from its failures. And after we're through trying to salvage something that is already DOA, we will end up recognizing that Clinton-style reforms are really the only option. Because politics is not about making Utopia, it is about making things better.

And if we weren't all full of Obama's opportunistic lies, we'd remember which President it was who did make life better - for poor people, for working people, for racial minorities, for women, and even the environment. That's what Democrat means to me.

The liberal elites (who apparently don't come out of their exclusive neighborhoods very often???) still do not understand why all their policies of the 1970s were rejected: it is because they didn't work.

And, please don't come back with comments about Obama's smear machine.

Ok, how bout Obama's own foul mouth, which every day has some new reason why his own political failures are all because of some flaw in Hillary Clinton's character?

Can the man refrain even for ONE DAY from attacks on Clinton?

Oh wait ... no: because Hillary deserves it, and that makes it not only okay, but noble. After all, it's not like he wants to talk trash about that dirt on his shoulder. Obama is forced - just forced! - to admit that she lacks integrity, she lies, she will do anything to win, her claws come out and she is (insinuation 'that time of the month') and she can't even keep her husband ("house in order" - that one courtesy Michelle) and she uses gimmicks and she panders and she sounds like a Republican and it's her fault he can't talk about issues like he wants to and it's her fault the tone of the discourse is so low and if he flubs a debate that means she must be (insinuation 'corrupt') and she says she's tough because it's a subliminal attack suggesting that somehow he isn't!

And yet somehow...issues only seem to come up when Clinton is the on