The Barack Backlash

Cesca goes so far as to say that "scary shouting black men equal ratings-sweet-ratings." But wasn't it Obama who invited reporters to his news conference and agreed to chat up Meredith Vieira and Tim Russert?

If you caught Hillary making her O'Reilly debut last night, I thought she hit it out of the park. Bill O'Reilly was hard on her--saying she's a socialist and her health plan would bankrupt the country--and she gave it right back to him in a friendly joust. She also, when prodded, took some shots at Wright.

"As Barack Obama sought to dampen the renewed controversy over his former pastor by announcing three superdelegate endorsements Wednesday, Democratic rival Hillary Rodham Clinton kept the issue alive, calling remarks by the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. 'offensive and outrageous,' " says the L.A. Times.

As for the Republicans, they are sooo over her:

"Hillary Clinton's decisive Pennsylvania primary win last week may have reinvigorated her campaign, but you wouldn't know it from listening to the Republican Party," Politico reports. "The National Republican Congressional Committee has purchased $500,000 in anti-Barack Obama ads for use in two upcoming special House elections. The Republican National Committee is flooding reporters with anti-Obama emails. Presumptive nominee John McCain and GOP surrogates have seized on new remarks by Obama's controversial former pastor. From top to bottom, from McCain down to the youthful campaign and party staffers who work nearly around the clock to get him elected, the working assumption seems to be that the Democratic contest is over and Obama has won."

In the WSJ, Karl Rove has some advice for the Republican nominee:

"When it comes to choosing a president, the American people want to know more about a candidate than policy positions. They want to know about character, the values ingrained in his heart. For Mr. McCain, that means they will want to know more about him personally than he has been willing to reveal . . .

"Private people like Mr. McCain are rare in politics for a reason. Candidates who are uncomfortable sharing their interior lives limit their appeal. But if Mr. McCain is to win the election this fall, he has to open up."

Meanwhile, I agree with Arianna: the media ignoring the NYT story on the Pentagon program to spin military analysts has been "shameful."