Starting Gate: Might Makes Wright

There remains one dominant issue in the presidential campaign today, one week before the North Carolina and Indiana primaries – Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Barack Obama's former pastor is making headlines for yet one more day. And they're not pleasant ones for the Illinois Senator. There are the tabloid headlines like the one in the New York Post proclaiming a "Pastor Disaster."

Then there is the serious advice, like that coming from the conservative Wall Street Journal editorial page: "Early in his campaign, Senator Obama earned support from many voters with the notion that he wanted to transcend racial politics. Rev. Wright is exacerbating them in a way not seen in recent years. Barack Obama cannot remain on both sides of this. He has to make a decision. He is not running for national Mediator. He is running for President. In time, that job brings tough decisions. He's there now."

It's the fodder for the morning papers and talk shows that opinion-makers (and superdelegates) are waking up to this morning: "Mr. Obama seems more and more like someone buffeted by events rather than in charge of them," writes New York Times columnist Bob Herbert. "Very little has changed in the superdelegate count, but a number of those delegates have expressed concern in private over Mr. Obama's inability to do better among white working-class voters and Catholics. Rev. Wright is absolutely the wrong medicine for those concerns."

The Washington Post's Eugene Robinson weighs in as well on Wright's recent comments and appearances. "I'm sorry, but I've had it with Wright," he writes. "Politically, by surfacing now, he was throwing Barack Obama under the bus. Sadly, it's time for Obama to return the favor."

What real impact all this might have on the Democratic nomination battle remains unknown. The initial round of Wright controversies took place in that gulf of time between the Texas/Ohio primaries and Pennsylvania and Obama performed about the same among demographic groups most likely to be affected by it, in some instances marginally better.

But it's not pure Democratic primary voters those superdelegates are most concerned about, it's those "Reagan Democrats" and independents who've shown a proclivity to vote Democratic in 2008 they want to keep in their column. It may take a while before the total impact of Wright is felt, so why should Democrats be in a hurry to get this race over with?

Easley Does It: Hillary Clinton heads to North Carolina this morning to collect the endorsement of Gov. Mike Easley, the first major elected official she's secured the backing of in the state. Easley may not have the kind of pull Ed Rendell provided in Pennsylvania but it's the first indication that Clinton may be making progress in a state where just keeping it close might be seen as a victory come next Tuesday.

It Is Tourist Season: Another week, another John McCain campaign tour, this one entitled the "call to action" tour. McCain is spending the early part of this week discussing his ideas about health care and in a speech in Florida today will lay out some of them, including a proposal to give families a $5,000 tax credit to help them purchase health insurance. "Insurance companies could no longer take your business for granted, offering narrow plans with escalating costs," McCain will say according to prepared remarks. "It would help change the whole dynamic of the current system, putting individuals and families back in charge, and forcing companies to respond with better service at lower cost."

McCain is also launching a new ad on the proposal today. Here's part of the script: "The problem with health care in America is not the quality of health care, it's the availability and the affordability. And that has to do with the dramatic increase in the cost of health care. Let's give every American family a $5,000 refundable tax credit so that they can go out across state lines and get the insurance policy that suits them best. I can characterize my approach on health care by choice and competition, affordability and availability. We need community health centers. We need walk-in clinics. We understand that emergency room care is the most expensive in America. There's many, many solutions to this problem. I think we can address them. The fundamental problem is not the quality of health care; it's the cost of health care. So health care must be made affordable and available."

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