Numbers like these (reported here today in the New York Post) have to be worrying the Obama team:

[A] new poll says 64 percent of Democrats nationwide, want [Hillary] to stay in the race.

Even 42 percent of Obama's supporters in the ABC News/ Washington Post  poll, said they don't want Clinton to throw in the towel. . . . . 

Separate polls released yesterday show Clinton beating Obama in West Virginia, 60 percent to 24 percent, and in Kentucky, 58 percent to 31 percent.

If I were on the Obama campaign, I'd want to know why so many Democrats want Hillary to stay in.  It's one thing if they're just enjoying the excitement and coverage the race is generating -- quite another, however, if they want to keep their options open and not be locked in yet with Barack as their nominee.

As a more general matter, it's worrisome that Hillary Clinton is beating Barack so soundly in West Virginia and Kentucky.  Usually, when it becomes clear that one person is pretty certain to be the eventual winner, that person picks up support and electoral momentum because of a "bandwagon effect" -- most people want to go with a winner.  That's why so few campaigns or candidates are ever willing to admit that anything is less than great . . . they know such an admission can begin (or accelerate) a downard spiral for them.

Given all this, it's hard not to wonder:  Where's Barack's bandwagon, and what does it mean that he doesn't seem to have one?

(AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

I feel violated.

This election season has been racialized, genderized and heck, even agecized so much even I'm offended. That is, offended at the amount of whining going on because someone dare mention something like the "white vote."

Barack Obama is crying foul because John McCain had the audacity to bring up the fact a member of the terrorist group Hamas endorsed Obama. Obama complained McCain was "smearing" him and accused McCain of "losing his bearings" i.e., old man McCain is off his rocker and confusing things.

In layman's terms Obama threw down his "race card" and raised McCain the "age card."

But I don't understand how discussing Hamas is a "distraction" as Obama calls things that highlight his weaknesses. Is terrorism now off-limits because Obama's middle name is Hussein? I'm having a hard time figuring out the obscure political correctness standard on this one.

Obama is countering the so-called slime by dredging up the Keating Five scandal McCain was implicated in. This is what ultimately led McCain to push horrendous campaign finance laws roundly hated by conservatives. Keating Five is "fair game" says Obama.

Obama's right. Keating Five is absolutely fair game. And so is Hamas. Not because of Obama's middle name, either.

These issues aren't "smears." When McCain talks foreign policy, it isn't an attack on Obama's upbringing. The proper response is not calling McCain an old man. This seems obvious. What is ever more obvious is someone's  "cards" are being overplayed. Obama's. And I think it's time for him to fold 'em.

The centerpiece of McCain's approach to slowing global warming is a nationwide "cap-and-trade" system for reducing emissions -- setting an overall pollution limit, then letting individual polluters buy and sell emissions allowances within that limit.

Political minefields

But in delivering his manifesto Monday, he also stepped directly on two of the biggest ideological land mines around global warming reductions. He endorsed nuclear power and proposed to crack down on China and India if they don't adopt similar caps to control their accelerating emissions.

Conservatives seem to be snickering over the latest Susan B. Anthony List update.  ... SBA’s No. 1 goal is to end abortion in this country.

This is why some find it highly interesting that the two new co-chairs of the SBA List are former Mitt Romney folk: Barbara Comstock and Cesar Conda. (Conda works at Navigators, the baby of GOP Svengali Mike Murphy, while Comstock has her own shop.)

Still, heads are shaking at the news — especially considering Romney’s abortion-rights past. And, even better: SBA is also holding a fundraiser ($500 a head) with who as its highlighted star of the night? Mitt Romney. “Having Romney headline a SBA event doesn’t pass the laugh test in town among real conservatives,” snickered one self-described “real conservative” who went on to ask: “Two senior Romney people in charge of the SBA? Are they trying to kill the institution?”

Mr. Obama must also demonstrate concretely that he is sympathetic to the victims of crime. . .. He needs to make clear, in no uncertain terms, that he understands American concerns about law and order, and that he puts public safety at the top of his priorities. To be sure, there is an increasing role for rehabilitation in the criminal justice system. But Mr. Obama must emphasize first and foremost that he is on the side of law-abiding people.

Well.  Given some of Barack's votes on crime issues, that may be a problem.  Investors Business Daily gives a supremely illuminating list of Barack's law-enforcement priorities on both the state and federal levels.  At the federal level, for example, he wants to "rethink" criminal penalties for marijuana, and re-enfranchise felons.  Hm.

Given his crime record, Barack may have better luck with some of Schoen's other advice . . . like wearing that American flag lapel pin.

"Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas and defeated contender for the GOP presidential nomination, is currently at the top of John McCain's short list for a running mate. At least that's the word from a top McCain fundraiser and longtime Republican moneyman who has spoken to McCain's inner circle."