In the L.A. Times, Joel Stein delivers the latest chapter in the Book of Obama: Obamaphilia has gotten creepy. I couldn’t figure out if the two canvassers who came to my door Sunday had taken Ecstasy or were just fantasizing about an Obama presidency, but I feared they were going to hug me… What the Cult of Obama doesn’t realize is that he’s a politician. Not a brave one taking

on Arkansas, after tornadoes, by God, because of Huckabee. More.   Still more. Previously.

RCP conveniently reprints the transcript of Dark Lord Karl Rove’s preview of the next week or two of the Democratic campaign from Hannity & Colmes.  At OpenLeft, Chris Bowers gives a similar rundown, favoring Sen. Barack Obama across the board in this weekend’s contests — caucuses in Maine, Washington state and Nebraska, plus the Louisiana primary.  Indeed, Obama is also favored the so-called “Potomac primary” next Tuesday, comprised of Virginia, DC, and

doesn’t want to be the story. Developing. UPDATE: Looks like there’s going to be considerable scope for troll-thwacking this evening. I can recommend Principato Pinot Noir (Pavia). Better than many a $40 bottle I’ve had, and at $5.99, a stupendous bargain. Luscious would be the word. UPDATE: If Clintons return to Whitehouse–The People’s House–the Lincoln Bedroom will be open to regular citizens, no quid pro quo expected.   Book now!

Sen. John McCain’s rivals never understood how to tackle him, and DNC Chair Howard Dean’s talking points were generally lame (and inaccurate), but the Politico’s Jeanne Cummings reports on what the pros on the Dem side are mulling for Maverick: The appeal of a flip-flop assault is that it could undermine McCain’s reputation for taking tough stands and sticking with them no matter how the political wind blows. Carter Eskew, a former

Bill Press, former host of “Crossfire” (and, last I checked, not a card-carrying member of the Vast Rightwing Conspiracy), argues that the media (in its aggregate, which is, at least if one counts political self-identification of reporters as a factor toward selection bias, overwhelmingly “liberal”) has changed from reporting on the primaries to deciding the primaries. They pick their favorites, they give them preferential treatment, they tear down their opponents,

Ray Robison emails: The media has decided that the Taliban is winning and they are running with the “resurgent Taliban” lie no matter how much NATO says the Taliban is not “resurgent”. They are burying US success to help the democrat nominee. Are they? Or is such spin actually more helpful to the candidate seen as most likely to prosecute the war vigourously, John McCain. — Oh, wait. I guess

back in the news, advocating the installation of Shari’a law.  He ought to stop abusing his archbishopric in public, in my opinion.

Give Admiral Michael McConnell credit for trying to walk back the cat. Questioned this week by the Senate Intelligence Committee, the Director of National Intelligence defended the “integrity and the professionalism” of the process that produced last December’s stunning National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iran’s nuclear program. Yet his testimony amounts to a reversal of the previous judgment. ****** Admiral McConnell’s belated damage repair ought to refocus world attention on

There are plenty of people offering theories as to why Mitt Romney’s quest for the presidency fizzled to an end yesterday, but two are particularly worth highlighting, for different reasons. RCP’s Jay Cost presents the circumstantial evidence that the general electorate, and a sizable minority of Republican voters, came to dislike Romney due to his negative attacks on McCain and Huckabee. At Newsweek, Howard Fineman argues that Romney failed because he