If you have any doubts as to whether or not Mrs. Clinton's protracting of this Democratic nomination is having a deleterious effect on the Democrat's chances of winning in November look no further then the latest round of polls. Problems are popping up in Pennsylvania, Michigan, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Ohio, and nationally. We may go from attacking red districts to defending blue districts on the Presidential level. The "controversy" over Wright is contributing to making the electoral picture clearer, because it would be only a matter of time before the GOP's surrogate's would start exploiting the state of race in the US in any way they could, now we know how it will look and how well Obama will react.

Obama did a great job in his remarks concerning Wright because he was honest. It's just that simple.
What I didn't quite expect is Hillary Clinton bad mouthing Barack Obama in a petty way in Michigan today over the non-existent controversy over seating delegates from Michigan when all the candidates knew going in what the score was. This is bad form on Clinton's part and she's hurting her party and if she keeps it up, and we end up loosing to McCain in November over no real substantive policy differences between the two candidates, she'll be reviled.

When the only way you can win the nomination is by cutting a back room deal that doesn't reflect the will of the majority, you can't win from the Democratic Party in 2008, the base will just not have it.

In North Carolina, you have a rich example of the kind of damage the combination of Clinton and Bill O'Reilly are doing. Obama has fallen from +14 to only +1 this week. I wouldn't mind if Clinton had a chance to win 65% of all the remaining delegates, but realistically, she can only get close enough to stop us all.

Prediction time:

Obama will go into the convention with an 135-150 delegate lead. Messy time, I hope that the same ratio of voters in even increased numbers show up for the general election as did the primary and caucus process. John McCain is receiving such a gift right now.

Obama has a 70% chance to win the Democratic nomination and a 55% to 60% chance of becoming president and only mildly shrinking due to demographic shifts in the electorate exemplified by the primary calender turnout. The big question is this: Can both or either Clinton or Obama retain and grow their turnout numbers in all the states. States like Pennsylvania and Michigan seem to be in play, shockingly, for McCain. At the same time Virginia and Missouri are in play for the Democratic candidate.

We should be fine, but by the time November rolls around I'm afraid that Clinton and FOX-News are going to grind on Obama like a pencil in a sharpner, and they'll hit every racial note they can get away with. Obama had a preacher that is no more crazy then John McCain's theological associates ,(Hagee and Rod Parsley.)

It's the economy and health care, stupid.

It's the shrinking middle class and the cost of living, stupid

It's not Jeremiah Wright, stupid.

It's ethics, transparency, small "d" democracy, and the frippery treatment of your inherent, natural rights, stupid.

It's the wrong war and incompetence, stupid

It's not anything else, stupid.