Walking on Eggshells

The RNC won't be going the Hussein route:

"Republican National Committee Chairman Mike Duncan formally denounced Thursday the Tennessee Republican Party's use of Barack Obama's full name in a recent press release questioning the Illinois senator's commitment to Israel."

Josh Marshall isn't buying the notion that the Bill Cunningham incident in Cincinnati was an aberration:

"Don't insult your intelligence or mine by pretending that John McCain's plan for this race doesn't rely on hundreds of Cunninghams -- large and small -- across the country, and the RNC and all the GOP third party groups, to be peddling this stuff nonstop for the next eight months because it's the only way John McCain have a real shot at contesting this race."

If so, the media have to hold Democratic surrogates accountable, too, like the Hillary adviser who hit Obama in New Hampshire over past drug use.

By the way, Louis Farrakhan is still supporting Obama, despite the senator denouncing and rejecting him, and says Tim Russert was engaged in "mischief making intended to hurt Mr. Obama politically."

Just when it looked like Hillary might grab a favorable headline for a big fundraising haul--more than double January's total--her rival spoiled it:

"Fundraising numbers in the Democratic race for president shot into the stratosphere in the month of February, with reports from aides to Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama putting the staggering combined figure at somewhere in the range of $85 million," the Chicago Tribune says.

"Clinton touted the news that she had raised $35 million as evidence of the vitality of her campaign, as she conducted a furious day of campaigning in Ohio and Texas, where voters could decide her fate in the campaign on Tuesday.

"The Obama camp responded coyly, saying only that they would surpass the $35 million figure by reporting 'considerably more'--and then sat back without official comment amid news reports of their skyrocketing February total."

Obama has another opponent to fight off:

"President Bush yesterday unloaded his most forceful criticism yet of Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama for his promise to meet unconditionally with leaders hostile to the United States," the Washington Times reports.