Taylor Marsh – TaylorMarsh.com – News, Opinion and Weblog on Progressive Politics

“… So I have a proposal. Today, I am challenging Senator Obama to a bowl-off. A bowling night, right here in Pennsylvania. Winner take all. I’ll even spot him two frames. It’s time for his campaign to get out of the gutter and allow all of the pins to be counted. .. …” – Hillary Clinton

Remember that liberal survey Politico.com wrote about a while back. Well, come
to find out Obama
didn’t tell the truth about not being involved in the answers:

Taken together — and combined with later policy pronouncements — the two 1996 questionnaires paint a picture of an inexperienced Obama still trying to feel his way around major political issues and less constrained by the nuance that now frames his positions on sensitive issues. … ..

There remains a general
election problem for us woven into Obama’s nomination reality, which many elite Democrats and others are ignoring:

Andrea Helmer was interested in Barack Obama until she heard sound bites of his fiery pastor’s sermons. Last week, she volunteered for Hillary Clinton’s campaign in Indiana. “As things came out regarding some of the things his pastor has said, I got concerned,” said Helmer, a 36-year-old respiratory therapist and mother of two in Evansville, Indiana. Interviews with dozens of Democrats in this overwhelmingly white region — where voters will go to the polls in the May 6 primary — suggest residual concerns over the controversy involving Obama’s former pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright. To be sure, this flies in the face of most polls taken after Obama’s widely praised March 18 speech on race and the Wright controversy. … .. … .. Still, there are stirrings of unease among white voters, including those who fear the issue will hurt Obama in a general election. Pew also found that 39 percent of all white voters who had heard of the controversy, including Republicans and independents, said it made them less favorable toward Obama. .. …

The news for Clinton
in PA., however, isn’t close to what she needs. Clinton is down 2; Obama is up 5:

If the Democratic primary in Pennsylvania were held Tuesday, April 1, Hillary Clinton would defeat Barack Obama by 12 percentage points, according to a recent SurveyUSA poll conducted exclusively for NBC 10 and three other Pennsylvania TV stations across the state. However, the poll showed Obama gaining ground in the Keystone State, particularly in cities like Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, and among older voters, men and conservative Democrats. … ..

Rasmussen
shows an even tighter race in PA. They also hint that the Bosnia flap hasn’t
fully played itself out either, which has caused problems for Clinton all the
way around. However, in the end Obama seems to always close weak in Clinton stronghold states. There’s a lot of time, but Obama’s cash advantage is going to make it tougher.