Obama's Street Cred

"What, no whiz?

"Sen. Barack Obama sampled $100 ham, but didn't chow down on a cheesesteak during a visit to the Italian Market yesterday.

"During a half-hour tour of the market, Obama sampled wares at Claudio Specialty Food and DiBruno Brothers - where he noshed on a Spanish ham that retails for $99.99 a pound.

"Staff at DiBruno's told him the ham only recently became available because it was previously barred by the FDA. 'All I know is it tastes good,' Obama said. As good as whiz with onions?

"In fact, neither Obama nor Sen. Hillary Clinton, his rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, has made the traditional stop at South Philly cheesesteak establishments Pat's or Geno's."

In a similar vein, some cable shows kept playing video of Obama dissing a man ("You're wearing me out, brother") who kept badgering him for a photo. Says Ann Althouse: "Was it that guy's goal to [tick] Obama off and get him looking bad on camera? I'd say Obama kept his cool and handled it well, but I'm sure there will be people who will say this is Obama losing his cool. To that, I'd say: If this is Obama losing his cool, Obama is very cool. Perhaps a better question is whether Obama is too cool -- too bland and unemotional to enthuse us."

Cool or not, is Obama starting to dip?

"Senator Barack Obama's support among Democrats nationally has softened over the last month -- particularly among men and upper-income voters -- as voters have taken a slightly less positive view of him than they did after his burst of victories in February, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.

"Mr. Obama's favorability rating among Democratic primary voters has dropped seven percentage points, to 62 percent, since the last Times/CBS News survey, in late February. While that figure is by any measure high, the decline came in a month in which he has come under withering attack from Mrs. Clinton and has had to respond to reports that his former pastor had made politically inflammatory statements from his church's pulpit in Chicago."

The survey shows Obama beating McCain 47 to 42 (down from a 12-point margin), and Hillary besting the Arizonan 48 to 43.

But look at this from the CBS write-up: "Seventy percent say Obama shares Americans' values, 60 percent say Clinton does and 66 percent say the same for McCain."

And in another tally, the L.A. Times says Hillary's lead among the supers has dwindled from 106 to 30: