Fox's photo phlub on national TV, explaining Clinton's debate demand

Here's a screen grab of a shot they showed on "Fox & Friends" the other morning. They were illustrating the repeated calls by New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, reported in detail on The Ticket, for a Lincoln-Douglas style debate between the two remaining Democratic presidential candidates, Clinton and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama before next week's Indiana and North Carolina primaries.

Remember we suggested in that item that it's a sure sign of someone losing when he/she seeks a "Lincoln-Douglas style debate," meaning one-on-one, no moderator, as Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas did seven times in their fabled U.S. Senate race in 1858.

By the way, do you see anything wrong with this screen shot from Fox?

Hint: That's Lincoln on the right, all right. (By the way, we know subjects were not supposed to smile in 19th century photographs. But do you think that mug would let Abe get elected in today's made-up, beautified media world?)

So the fellow on the left must be Stephen Douglas, right? The winner of that 1858 race that left Lincoln free to prepare for his successful 1860 Republican presidential run. Wrong! Old Steve D. wasn't African American for starters.

That's actually a photograph of Frederick Douglass, the 19th century black abolitionist who sure wasn't running for the Senate in 1858. Fox's producers put up the wrong guy on national TV.

But who's gonna notice on a chat-filled TV morning show? With a tip of the hat to our pals at the Swamp and MSNBC, which caught their competitor's photo flub.

--Andrew Malcolm

A Michelle Obama excerpt, discussing Jeremiah Wright

In an interview with Barack and Michelle Obama that NBC's "Today" show will air Thursday -- with excerpts aired this evening on NBC's "Nightly News" -- Meredith Vieira asked the candidate's wife whether she believed that the couple's former longtime pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, had betrayed her husband.

"I think Barack has spoken so clearly and eloquently about this," Michelle Obama said.

"But do you personally feel that the Rev. Wright ... ," asked Vieira, probing for more.

"You know what I think, Meredith? I think we gotta move forward," Michelle said. "You know, this conversation doesn't help my kids. You know, it doesn't help kids out there who are looking for us to make decisions and choices about how we're going to better fund education."

-- Mark Silva

Mark Silva writes for the Swamp of the Chicago Tribune's Washington bureau.

Excerpts from Hillary Clinton's chat with Bill O'Reilly

Fox News Channel has released excerpts of Hillary Clinton's interview with Bill O'Reilly, before the airing tonight of the first segment of the talk (Part 2 broadcasts Thursday). Not surprisingly, the first topic spotlighted was the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

Here's the excerpt, which leaves it unclear whether she was addressing a specific Wright remark or the inflammatory tenor of many of his comments came after O'Reilly asked her: "You're an American citizen. I'm an American citizen. He's an American citizen, Rev. Wright. What do you think when you hear a fellow American citizen say that stuff about America? What do you think?"

“Well, I take offense at it. I think it’s offensive and outrageous. And, you know, I’m going to express my opinion, others can express theirs. But, you know, it is -- it is part of, you know, just an atmosphere that we’re in today where all kinds of things are being said.

"And people have to, you know, decide what they believe. And I sure don’t believe the United States government was behind AIDS.”

It makes perfect sense for Clinton to condemn Wright, especially on the AIDS issue. We wonder, though, if at some point in the interview she cut Barack Obama the type of slack John McCain did on Tuesday.

Here's part of the quote McCain gave CNN on Tuesday:

"I have made it very clear that I don't believe that Rev. Wright reflects the views of Sen. Obama, and I don't have anything more to say about it."

(Update: Clinton told O'Reilly that Obama "made his views clear, finally, and did what he had to do.")

Another Clinton excerpt seems to suggest ...

An Oprah Winfrey neighbor in California endorses Barack Obama

And then there were 10.

Given our particular interest in all things California, we've double-checked and confirmed that that's how many of the state's 34 Democratic members of the U.S. House remain uncommitted in their party's blistering presidential contest (no small matter since they're all convention superdelegates).

The number was reduced from 11 with Rep. Lois Capps of Santa Barbara (right) declaring her allegiance to Barack Obama. Indeed, today Capps was one of three "supers" coming out for Obama, even as the political world mulls how badly the latest contretemps sparked by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright damaged him.

The other two were Rep. Bruce Braley of Iowa and Rep. Baron Hill of Indiana (an especially interesting endorsement not only because of his state's impending primary, but because he represents one of the nation's most politically competitive districts.)

In their ever-so-tight race, Hillary Clinton countered with two new "supers" -- Democratic National Committee member Luisette Cabanas of Puerto Rico and AFL-CIO leader Bill George of Pennsylvania.

The moves were in line with recent trends in the hand-to-hand combat for superdelegates: Obama does well among those who are elected officials, while Clinton benefits from her institutional support within party ranks.

Capps is one of those with strong ties to the Clintons. Her daughter, Laura, worked several years ...

Barack Obama gets in some exercise

Roy Williams, for years one of the most successful coaches in college basketball, has taken a shot at political prognostication.

“You've got the future president of the United States wide open,” he shouted at one point to present and past University of North Carolina basketball players who were part of a pickup game Tuesday that included Barack Obama (and who apparently weren't as willing as they should have been to pass to him).

The coaching tip from Williams, who won the national championship at UNC a few years back and led the Tar Heels to the Final Four earlier this spring, earned him "quote of the day" honors from ABC's daily political note (no small achievement, given the plethora of sound bites Obama provided later at his news conference denouncing the Rev. Jeremiah Wright).

If ever a politician needed to work off some nervous energy with a game of hoops, we imagine it was Obama as he grappled ...

Barack Obama and wife, Michelle: Mutual TV appearance upcoming

Now that Barack Obama has distanced himself publicly, if painfully, from the pastor who married him and his wife and baptized their children, he is getting close to the wife in a national television appearance.

NBC's Meredith Vieira will sit down with Barack and Michelle Obama today in Indianapolis for an interview that will air on the "Today" show Thursday. A segment of the talk will air on NBC's "Nightly News" and on MSNBC this evening.

Michelle Obama has been a tireless campaigner for her husband on the road. And now, as the Democratic candidate for president attempts to put the Rev. Jeremiah Wright in the campaign's rear view mirror, he is presenting a new image for public consumption: A professional and happily married couple willing to face a rough political time together.

-- Mark Silva

Mark Silva writes for the Swamp of the Chicago Tribune's Washington bureau.

Is Obama wrong or Wright? Vote here

In his highly praised and closely critiqued speech on race in America in Philadelphia last month, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama took 37 minutes to dissect his views on race in America and the need for improved dialog and his controversial relationship with his outspoken pastor of two decades, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright of Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ.

As the leading candidate for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, Obama was under extreme and mounting pressure to distance himself from the inflammatory remarks of Wright.

They included denunciations of America, appearing to suggest the United States invited the 9/11 attacks and charging that the federal government invented the AIDS epidemic to commit genocide against people of color.

Obama said he had not heard the worst comments and did not specify which Wright remarks he was describing, but "condemned" the "statements of Rev. Wright that have caused such controversy." So proud is the Obama organization of that now partially inoperative address that as of last night it was still offering a DVD of the speech in return for a minimum $30 campaign donation.

At the same time Obama also said of Wright: "I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community."

Tuesday, after Wright's speech and news conference in Washington, Obama did just that. "The person I saw yesterday was not the person that I met 20 years ago. His comments were not only divisive and destructive, but I believe that they end up giving comfort to those who prey on hate and I believe that they do not portray accurately the perspective of the black church.

"They certainly don’t portray accurately my values and beliefs.

"And if Rev. Wright thinks that that’s political posturing, as he put it, then he doesn’t know me very well. And based on his remarks yesterday, well, I may not know him as well as I thought either."

Obama's complete news conference remarks are published below after the jump, along with a third poll question. And as always on The Ticket, the comment line is open for dialogue.

Click on Read more.

--Andrew Malcolm

Ron Paul's troops quietly take over some local GOP groups

If anybody thought the Ron Paul Revolution had expired, they need to rethink that one.

Clearly, the 72-year-old libertarian-minded Texas representative was not going to win the Republican Party's nomination this year with his 12, 20 or 42 delegates, whomever you believe. Sen. John McCain already has enough to win the GOP nod in St. Paul in September. So Paul has taken his well-funded campaign and gone rather underground to the local level where his loyal Paulunteers are organizing and taking over numerous county party operations in several states.

Quietly, beneath the political radar of the Republican Party establishment and mainstream media, they're laboring at the local level. Last month Paul forces read the party rule book in Missouri and elected about a third of the delegates to the state convention that will pick the delegates to the national convention.

Last weekend in Nevada they drove through a rules change in the state party convention that halted the approval of pre-approved slates of convention delegates as a means to eventually substitute their own supporters to travel to St. Paul and boost Paul's delegate totals for platform and other struggles this fall.

Using sophisticated communications techniques on the Nevada convention floor in Reno, Paul supporters transmitted mass text messaging to maneuver and direct their troops. When Paul appeared to speak, the ovation was thunderous.

At other times they shouted down the convention chair, Sen. Bob Beers. Taken by surprise the convention organizers and the McCain camp, which for instance had no supply of campaign signs to compete with the blizzard of Paul signs, eventually adjourned the convention in chaos without electing any delegates.

The excuse was the expiration of the convention's contract with the host casino. No new convention date was announced. The Ron Paul crews move on to their next target.

--Andrew Malcolm

                                                                                                                  Photo Credit: RonPaul.com

Hillary Clinton, meet Bill O'Reilly

As our Showtracker blog noted earlier today, Hillary Clinton is slated to headline FOX News Channel's "The O'Reilly Factor," conversing -- for the first time -- with host Bill O'Reilly from Indiana. The interview will air in two parts, with the first segment shown Wednesday night and the next on Thursday (all the better to milk the ratings, presumably).

Her appearance predictably follows Barack Obama's long-awaited interview on FOX News Sunday with Chris Wallace. From the viewpoint of the mainstream media (like us), Obama emerged unscathed from his encounter with Wallace (little knowing a new Jeremiah Wright-inspired firestorm awaited him).

But some liberal bloggers, who as part of decrying what they see as FOX's over-the-top conservative bias generally urge Democrats to boycott the network, were displeased with Obama and the way he handled his chat (see here, here and here).

Clinton may not take quite as much grief because many in the liberal blogsphere have long since written her off. Still, she hasn't gotten a complete pass.

Jason Linkins of the Huffington Post had unpleasant things ...

The Barack Obama-Jeremiah Wright link: What first forged it?

Noam Scheiber of the New Republic earlier today astutely focused on what remains the great imponderable in the Barack Obama-Jeremiah Wright relationship: What caused the younger, aspiring pol to first come under the sway of the older, established preacher?

Scheiber rejects as simplistic the two basic theories that abound -- that Obama cynically joined Wright's church as a purely political calculation, or that he saw in the pastor a substitute for the father he basically lacked.

Instead, Scheiber consulted "Obama: From Promise to Power," a biography by David Mendell that probed how the two became linked, an effort helped by insights provided by Wright himself. Scheiber's posting consists mainly of what he rightly terms a "fascinating passage" from Mendell's book. Here's part of it:

"The liberal, Columbia-educated Obama was attracted to Wright's cerebral and inclusive nature, as opposed to the more socially conservative and less educated ministers around Chicago. Wright developed into a counselor and mentor to Obama as Obama sought to understand the power of Christianity in the lives of black Americans, and as he grappled with the complex vagaries of Chicago's black political scene."

-- Don Frederick

"Pansy" reference in Hillary Clinton endorsement raises some hackles

North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley's high-profile embrace of Hillary Clinton may not play out as an unalloyed asset for her. The main sound bite he delivered in endorsing her presidential candidacy today sparked criticism (muted, for the most part) for being an insult to gays.

Referring to his own reputation as a hard-charging politician, he said, "I've been accused of being persistent and downright aggravating." As Clinton stood next to him in an auditorium at North Carolina State University, he added, "But this lady right here makes Rocky Balboa look like a pansy." (More about the event is available here.)

The first definition in Webster's New World Dictionary for pansy is "any of various violets." But then there's this: "[Slang] an effeminate man; esp. an effeminate male homosexual: often a contemptuous term."

Although Barack Obama's overdue stiff-arm of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright overwhelmed coverage of virtually anything else in politics today, Easley's comment did not go completely unnoticed.

As of this afternoon, a  handful of blogs had commented on it, including this post on The Smoking Gun, which noted that when Clinton ...

Was Jeremiah Wright's speech set up by a Clinton supporter?

Well, here's a most interesting connection we just came across.

Everybody is talking today about how much the Rev. Jeremiah Wright's latest unrepentant militant remarks hurt his most prominent parishoner, Sen. Barack Obama, and his chances to win the Democratic presidential nomination and the general election. So much so that the Obama camp realized the latent danger overnight and the candidate was forced to speak out publicly a second time today, as The Ticket noted here earlier today.

There was little doubt left in today's remarks by Obama, who recently said he could no more disown Wright than he could the black community. He pretty much disowned Wright today. Obama described himself as "outraged" and "saddened" by "the spectacle of what we saw yesterday."

But now, it turns out, we should have been paying a little less attention to Wright's speech and the histrionics of his ensuing news conference and taken a peek at....

Barack Obama denounces Jeremiah Wright's 'ridiculous' notions

The break between Barack Obama and his onetime pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, is now official.

In comments in North Carolina today, Obama noted that he had given Wright the "benefit of the doubt" when the furor over the preacher first erupted in mid-March, based on YouTube snippets from past sermons in which his incendiary comments included a condemnation of America.

No more, the Democratic presidential contender stressed, following Wright's remarks Monday at the National Press Club in Washington.

Obama began his response today by saying that a belief in racial reconciliation "is in my DNA" (and given his biracial bloodlines, of course, that resonates as more more than just a symbolic phrase).

"Yesterday, we saw a very different vision," Obama said of Wright's Washington appearance, which at one point he termed a "performance."

He could hardly have distanced himself farther from the man who officiated at his  wedding ceremony  and baptized his two children.

Obama described himself as "outraged" by many of Wright's remarks and "saddened" by what he termed "the spectacle of what we saw yesterday."

He characterized as "ridiculous" Wright's notion that the AIDS epidemic may have been a conspiracy inflicted on blacks by the federal government and that Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan should be considered a leading voice in modern times.

Such views ...

Younger voters strongly lean Democratic

What an odd time for Democrats.

Even as concern grows about the possible cost in November of the protracted fight between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, long-range trends continue to flow in the party's direction.

The latest dose of good news for Howard Dean and other Democratic leaders comes from the estimable Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, which reports a huge tilt toward the party among younger voters. Here are the particulars:

"In surveys conducted between October 2007 and March 2008, 58% of voters under age 30 identified or leaned toward the Democratic Party, compared with 33% who identified or leaned toward the GOP. The Democratic Party's current lead in party identification among young voters has more than doubled since the 2004 campaign, from 11 points to 25 points."

Even more heartening for Dean, et al, is this perspective from the Pew Center analysts:

"Trends in the opinions of America's youngest voters are often a barometer of shifting political winds. And that appears to be the case in 2008. The current generation of young voters, who came of age during the George W. Bush years, is leading the way in giving the Democrats a wide advantage in party identification, just as the previous generation of young people who grew up in the (Ronald) Reagan years -- Generation X -- fueled the Republican surge of the mid-1990s."

Indeed, among all voters, the Pew Center found that ...

Watch it yourself: Hillary Clinton meets with Indiana journalists

Having participated in similar sessions ourselves, we can't in good conscience bill Hillary Clinton's sit-down today with the editorial board of the Indianapolis Star as "must-see" TV.

But see it live you can, via the magic of the Internet, at IndyStar.com. The proceedings kick off at 3 p.m. EDT (which, for the time-zone challenged, is noon PDT).

Barack Obama met with the board last week, and the high points of that dialogue are available at the same site.

-- Don Frederick

Barack Obama's dilemma: Jeremiah Wright doesn't care

Some of the most worrisome words for Barack Obama uttered by Rev. Jeremiah Wright Monday at the National Press Club were those indicating that the presidential candidate's voluble former pastor is washing his hands, Pontius Pilate-like, of any responsibility for what becomes of Obama's political prospects.

Here's the passage that should be among the most horrifying for the Obama campaign:

"In my tradition ...what everybody has been saying to me as it pertains to the candidacy is, what God has for you is for you. If God intends for Mr. Obama to be the president, then no white racist, no political pundit, no speech, nothing can get in the way, for God will do what God wants to do."

If Wright truly believes this, and there's no reason to think otherwise, then it means we can expect the South Side Chicago preacher won't be mincing words in the next weeks or months to help his one-time congregant. Far from it.

Wright clearly holds that he should be able to freely speak his mind and if that helps to derail Obama's campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination or the White House, well, Wright can say that just goes to prove God wasn't for Obama becoming the 44th president of the U.S. in the first place.

Variations of Wright's statement is often heard among Christian believers: If God means it (fill in the blank -- job, spouse, house) is for you, then you will have it.

The problem for Obama ...

The stars say the Dems will meet in Denver, but first come nearly 200 astrologers

We should have seen it in the stars, but next month in preparation for the potentially rancorous Democratic National Convention in Denver in late August, nearly 200 "highly respected astrologers" will gather in the same city.

There, they'll discuss such things as business and financial astrology, Pluto's entry into Capricorn and legal issues facing today's astrologers.

Who knows they might even get into the business of predicting who the heck is gonna win this drawn-out Democratic Party primary process -- Princess Hillary or Prince Barack.

What's happening just about three moons before the Democrats gather in the Mile High City is the United Astrology Conference, promising sessions that go way beyond standard newspaper horoscope fare, although here at The Ticket on LATimes.com we find absolutely nothing wrong with standard newspaper horoscope fare.

In  fact, we consult the stars before we write every item. Honest.

A conference news release predicts some 1,500 attendees, although how they can say that with Leo rising stretches credulity.

There'll be some 270 classes examining topics such as romantic and political compatibility, the future of the Iraq war and China's role in the world as well as astrometeorology (predicting the weather by the stars) and predictions about 2012 which, The Ticket predicts, will see yet another presidential election.

According to Mark Wolz, an astrologer who's also into yoga and meditation, the Internet has changed the business of astrology because it gives clients access to much more information and star charts and that kind of stuff. "People are dissatisfied with answers from traditional sources," he says, "and they're looking more and more to the symbolic arts for insight."

Somehow, we could have predicted he was going to say that.

--Andrew Malcolm

Clinton drives home her Lincoln-Douglas debate idea and Obama demurs -- again

Anytime you hear a candidate in American politics propose a Lincoln-Douglas style debate, you know they're losing.

Hillary Clinton is making that proposal daily now. (See video below.) She knows Barack Obama is not going to accept. He's said that many times, including on national TV to Chris Wallace on 'Fox News Sunday,' where he finally appeared after two years of delays.

He's got nothing to gain by accepting -- give in and give her more TV face time with voters when, frankly, debating hasn't been his strong suit, especially the last one when he got pressed harder. And now his good friend, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, is back on the scene talking trash and raising new questions for the media.

As a debate response, Obama says he wants to spend the remaining time until May 6 meeting real voters and hearing and addressing their genuine concerns. He says he recalls from school days that....

Rush Limbaugh directs his Operation Chaos against Clinton and Obama

The Commander in Chief of Operation Chaos is in his Miami bunker, cigar firmly clenched in his teeth, radioing edicts and orders to his far-flung, obedient troops to wreak havoc on their perceived political opponents in this ongoing primary campaign.

Rush Limbaugh, he of the non Slim-Fast diet, is in his element these days. One of the loudest voices of the vast right-wing conspiracy is doing everything he can to help a Democrat named Hillary. Clinton. You read right.

Trailing Barack Obama in their party's presidential primary race, she's not about to say anything -- or discourage anyone from supporting her, even her old nemesis from the nineties, good old Rush.

It's not that Rush has seen The Liberal Light or anything like that. It's that he's determined that another Clinton would bring much larger Republican voter unity and turnout come fall than the Illinois guy.

And the longer the two surviving Democrats go at each other, the better it is for Republicans, even if the GOP standard-bearer this fall will be the notorious questionable conservative Sen. John McCain.

McCain is not a Limbaugh favorite. And to the extent that....

Bill Maher comments on Jeremiah Wright's comments on Obama

TV talk show host Bill Maher, who's gotten in some past controversy for comments on politics -- something about the 9/11 hijackers being brave or not cowards -- got going the other night about the Rev. Jeremiah Wright rejoining the public discussion after weeks of quiet.

In recent days Wright's given TV interviews and several public speeches including a defiant one (with video) earlier today at the National Press Club in Washington. 

Maher (see video below) says what many people, most of them supporters of Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, who refused to disown Wright in his recent race speech, are saying to themselves about the impact of the pastor's reappearance and resulting news coverage just as the Democratic Party presidential primary comes down to crunch time and the last few primaries between Obama and Sen. Hillary Clinton.

-- Andrew Malcolm

Barack Obama responds to latest Jeremiah Wright remarks

WILMINGTON, N.C. -- The hot-talking Rev. Jeremiah Wright was back in the news today, speaking to a jammed National Press Club and giving no ground in the controversy over his taped sermons.

So, naturally, his most famous parishioner, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, was asked about it while he was campaigning in North Carolina Monday for the Tar Heel State's May 6 Democratic presidential primary. And Obama, in turn, asked voters to judge him by his own words and deeds rather than his past associations.

His controversial former spiritual mentor reemerged in the presidential campaign through a broadcast interview and a series of speeches over the weekend and today.

"I think people will understand that I am not perfect," Obama said, "and that there are going to be folks in my past like Rev. Wright that may cause them some concern."

"But that ultimately my 20 years of service and the values that I've written about and spoken about and promoted are their values and what they're concerned about," Obama added.

The Illinois senator spoke at a press conference (hastily arranged by campaign staffers after Wright's latest remarks) on the airport tarmac in Wilmington, N.C., as media traveling with him were about to board his campaign plane. Airplane engines roared in the background and a plane taking off interrupted the brief media availability, which lasted less than six minutes and permitted only three questions.

Obama sought anew to distance himself from Wright's incendiary remarks after the former pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ spoke Monday in Washington. Wright delivered a high-profile speech the night before at a NAACP dinner in Detroit and also appeared on a PBS program hosted by Bill Moyers for a lengthy interview in which he said he was hurt by the reaction to his inflammatory sermons.

"Some of the comments that Rev. Wright has made offend me, and I understand why they offend the American people," Obama said. "He does not speak for me. He does not speak for the campaign."

"Many of the statements that he's made, both that triggered this initial controversy and that he's made over the last several days, are not statements that I have heard him make previously," the senator added. "They don't represent my views."

--Mike Dorning

Mike Dorning writes for the Swamp of the Chicago Tribune's Washington bureau.       Photo Credit: Trinity United Church of Christ

Whatever happens in November, it will be no-win for Bill Clinton

Bill Clinton is destined to be disgruntled, no matter how Campaign '08 turns out.

That, at least, is the conclusion veteran political reporter and analyst Al Hunt reaches in his provocative new column for  Bloomberg News.

Hunt pulls no punches in assessing how the ex-president's efforts -- which many have seen as frequently ham-handed -- to promote Hillary Clinton's candidacy have done her little good and deeply bruised his own reputation.

"The most talented and resilient politician of this generation," Hunt writes, "has damaged his standing with gaffes, political miscalculations and a series of paranoiac, volcanic eruptions.

"A common question these days among political heavyweights -- including longtime Clinton devotees -- is this: How can a guy this smart act so dumb?"

What most intrigued us, though, was Hunt's view, at column's end, of how the three possible November outcomes ...

Hillary Clinton gets a key backer in North Carolina

A bad day just got worse for Barack Obama with word that the popular Democratic governor of North Carolina, Mike Easley (below), will be endorsing Hillary Clinton Tuesday -- one week before the state's May 6 primary.

Obama has been leading in the polls in North Carolina and the state's demographics still play to his strengths. But the latest flareup featuring the Rev. Jeremiah Wright could undercut what his camp hoped would be an impressive winning margin in the state -- and perhaps turn the contest into a tossup. And Easley's backing of Clinton now gives her the type of institutional political heft that helped her cause so much in Ohio (where Gov. Ted Strickland rallied support for her) and Pennsylvania (where Gov. Ed Rendell spared no effort on her behalf).

Intriguingly, Easley's choice, reported by the Associated Press, puts him at odds with the two leading Democrats vying to replace him (he's prohibited from seeking a third term). The pair -- Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue and state Treasurer Richard Moore -- back Obama (which recently spurred a controversial Republican ad).

Easley's potential to help Clinton is explained, in part, by this description of his political savvy ...

GOP, Dems split over Supreme Court OK of Indiana voter ID law. More to come?

In a rather decisive 6-3 vote, the Supreme Court today approved an Indiana law requiring voter identification at the polls, which is likely to prompt other states to adopt similar measures against voter fraud.

Democrats, lead by -- who else? -- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, immediately denounced the ruling as placing a "roadblock to democracy" by requiring all voters to produce some form of official state identification before being allowed to vote.

Writing for the majority, Justice John Paul Stevens said, "Indiana's own experience with fraudulent voting in the 2003 Democratic primary for East Chicago mayor — though perpetrated using absentee ballots and not in-person fraud — demonstrate that not only is the risk of voter fraud real but that it could affect the outcome of a close election."

Thus, he wrote, the state has a legitimate interest "in protecting the integrity and reliability of the electoral process."

The Court dismissed Democratic arguments that because the law had been supported by Republican state legislators and opposed by Democrats that it should be invalidated.

It also rejected the Democratic argument that the law places....

Obama passes many chances to fight back against the Clintons

It must be getting a little claustrophobic in Sen. Barack Obama's ivory tower.

He's living in that place where he wants to talk about hope and change and all that good stuff in those speeches that attract people by the tens of thousands.

Sure, some "bitter" people might "cling" to their guns and God while Obama clings to the idea that he can win the Democratic nomination without meeting Sen. Hillary Clinton on the low road.

It's not getting any easier.

Those pesky things we like to call issues -- the war in Iraq, the economy, healthcare -- have been sideshows of late in this longest-running of primary campaigns.

When was the last time either Clinton or Obama made a point of a major policy difference?

Maybe there are just not enough hours in the day. Not when you can talk about things that are sure to divide if your goal is to conquer.

And that is the Clinton goal in this race. The math just doesn't....

Boston Globe lambastes Hillary Clinton over Iran

Another day, another editorial in a major newspaper that sternly takes Hillary Clinton to task.

Last Wednesday, while she reveled in her impressive Pennsylvania primary win, the New York Times (her hometown paper) put the blame mainly on her for what it deemed the unduly harsh and hollow tenor of debate in the Democratic presidential race (read that piece here).

The Boston Globe, in an editorial headlined "Hillary Strangelove," this morning calls her out for her recent comment that, as president, she would "totally obliterate" Iran if that country attacked Israel.

The paper noted that what it termed "this foolish and dangerous threat," uttered on ABC's "Good Morning America" the day of the Pennsylvania vote, received little attention in the U.S. But, the Globe added, "it reverberated in headlines around the world."

Those upset by Clinton's comment included the Arab News, which made a comparison that nowadays represents the cruelest critique many in other nations direct at a U.S. politician. Clinton's warning to Iran, the Saudi-based paper wrote, "demonstrates the same doltish ignorance that has distinguished (President Bush's) foreign relations."

The Globe sums up thusly: "A presidential candidate who lightly commits to obliterating Iran -- and, presumably, all the children, parents, and grandparents in Iran -- should not be answering the White House phone at any time of day or night."

Which, looking ahead, makes us wonder: If Clinton ends up the Democratic nominee, will the leading journalistic voice in one of the nation's most liberal states endorse Republican John McCain?

-- Don Frederick

Photo credit: Associated Press

In D.C. appearance, Jeremiah Wright remains controversial

David Axelrod, the chief strategist for Barack Obama, gets credit for understatement of the month with his comment on MSNBC this morning before the Rev. Jeremiah Wright wrapped up his media blitzkrieg of the last few days with an appearance at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.

To the extent that voters attribute to Obama statements and opinions that aren't his, Axelrod said, "it's obviously not helpful."

Now, in the wake of a feisty Q&A session that followed a speech Wright delivered (see video below), Obama and his top aides can only sit back and gauge how "obviously not helpful" the man who was the candidate's pastor for many years continues to be to his presidential hopes.

Our colleague Christi Parsons of the Chicago Tribune was among those covering Wright today, and she reports that in his address, he provided "a learned lecture on the black experience in America and on the African American faith tradition, an attempt to put into context the controversial sermon snippets that have been airing in recent weeks."

But, as he answered questions after his talk, Wright did nothing to quell the controversy ...