"The only thing that really matters in politics is what is happening here and NOW...how can the media not see that things have changed for Barack Obama?"

Actually, what's happening here and now doesn't matter either. What matters is what will happen in November.

We have already seen that Obama is consistently able, through the application of truckloads of cash but especially through vigorous campaigning in person, to bring up his poll numbers over time. Clinton had a 20-point lead in Pennsylvania which he cut down to less than 10 by the time the election came around. And that was AFTER Reverend Wright. Once the primary is over, he will have until November to work on swing states.

Will that be enough to beat McCain? Don't yet know, but I give Obama better odds than I'd give Clinton. He's been a smart campaigner and a fast learner. Clinton floundered for much too long. Iowa should have been a wake-up call, and Super Tuesday should have been a friggin' fire bell, yet she let Obama walk away with huge wins all through February and wrap up the nomination. She never really had a shot after that.

One thing I've noticed about both Obama and Howard Dean is that they're quite willing to open up new fronts against their electoral foes. The Clintons and their advisors seem to be locked into very traditional thinking; the same states, the same strategies that Democrats have been using, and losing, for years. Dean opened up his "50-state strategy" in '06 and took a lot of flack for it from the old guard, yet it paid off big dividends--sooner than even he expected. Obama beat Clinton by targeting the small states and caucuses that her people wrote off as too small to matter. He and his staff are bringing a fresh perspective to national politics. I think that will count for a lot more than people realize.