Obama's Speech, Sliced and Diced

"The documents include only Hillary Clinton's public schedules, not her private calendar," says Newsweek. "And even those appear to be heavily redacted to exclude almost anything that might be of interest to historians and the inevitable posse of 'oppo' researchers."

The AP reaches for this: "Hillary Rodham Clinton was home in the White House on a half dozen days when her husband had sexual encounters there with intern Monica Lewinsky, according to Sen. Clinton's schedule, released Wednesday among 11,000 pages of papers from her years as first lady."

Atlantic's Marc Ambinder says there's some nervousness out there:

"For the first time in two months, Democrats who had concluded that Barack Obama had sewn up the nomination, Democrats who support Barack Obama, Democrats who had concluded, as I had, that the mathematics work against Hillary Clinton, are filling my inbox and voice mail with versions of the same question: is his campaign in serious trouble?

"I dunno. I still think the math works against Clinton. More so, if no Florida and Michigan 2.0. But something is trembling beneath the surface.

"One neutral long-time Obama observer writes that Obama has been 'whipsawed' by [Wright] and Michigan/Florida, two external events over which he has no control.

"Note that the Clinton campaign has said word ZERO about the Wright story. I'm told that campaign manager Maggie Williams issued an edict to staff members and surrogates and top fundraisers, urging them to hold their tongues. That the Clinton campaign was able to keep to this discipline may turn out to be the most consequential [tactical] move they've made in months. If anyone associated with the campaign had waded into the Wright affair, it would have been politicized in a way that probably would have hurt Clinton and not Obama."

This nugget, from an LAT blog, jumped out at me too:

" 'You remember when, during the O.J. trial . . . black and white culture just had these completely opposite reactions and nobody understood it. I'm somebody who was pretty clear that O.J. was guilty,' Obama told 'Nightline's' Terry Moran."

I wonder if Jeremiah Wright thinks the Juice was railroaded.

A Public Policy Polling survey gives Hillary a 56-30 lead in Pennsylvania, and has her garnering 27 percent of the black vote. Meanwhile, a Reuters/Zogby poll has John McCain leading Hillary by 3 (a statistical tie) and Obama by 6.

Speaking of McCain, A.J. Rossmiller at Americablog jumps on his gaffe of saying Iran was training al-Qaeda operatives, which the senator corrected a moment later:

"McCain is at it again, this time telegraphing his profound lack of understanding of the regional dynamics. He recently claimed, multiple times, that Iran is training al Qaeda elements from Iraq. Iran, of course, is a Shia theocracy, and al Qaeda a Sunni terrorist group. This is like claiming that the RNC is training Democratic congressional candidates. Seriously -- this is a HUGE error. Not a single other government official or expert has claimed anything like this. It wasn't a momentary gaffe or slip; again, he said it multiple times. It's increasingly clear that he truly doesn't understand the situation . . . five years into the war."

A blunder, to be sure, but can the Democratic candidates really argue that they know more about foreign policy?

Chris Matthews seemed to enjoy dancing with Ellen DeGeneres yesterday. In fact, he was all over her. Click for the video.

And in today's installment of the David Paterson soap opera:

"Some advice to Gov. Paterson about the burly husband of your former lover: Stay away!

"That's what several sources who know Randy Loyd, the insurance executive married to former Paterson lover Lila Kirton, told the New York Post yesterday as they mulled over the new governor's stunning admission that he had a string of affairs with 'a number of' women . . .

"Loyd gave an alarming preview of that storied rage yesterday. Pulling up in his Mercedes at his White Plains home, photographers ran up to take his picture, touching off a screaming tantrum. 'Get out of here!' he yowled, chasing a pair of shutterbugs. 'Get off my property!' "

Hey, what did this guy do to deserve being harassed, other than pick up the paper and finding his wife had been fooling around?

Meanwhile, Paterson "defiantly challenged former Olympic gold medal winner Diane Dixon to make public the tape recordings she told [the New York] Post she possesses. She said the tapes demonstrate a close relationship with Paterson when he was lieutenant governor."