I think McCain's VP selection will be one of the most important in recent elections. If he chooses to join forces with a true, authentic conservative, he may actually manage to hold the entire conservative base -- and that's something I thought would be impossible. A unified Republican Party can win this election because, ironically, all of the McCain flaws we despise actually do help him with the crucial independents. I agree that Obama's negatives will continue rising, especially when he faces an opponent with DIFFERENT views.

Once the Obama/Rezko relationship is fully reported and out in the open you will Obama's negatives sky rocket, helped along by Clinton, McCain, and Ralph Nader all banging the same 'corruption' drum.

At that point I expect the media's love affair with Obama to begin to sour, and we may finally see a balance approach to the MSM's reporting on the elections -- with Clinton, McCain and Obama all subjected to the same scrutiny.

Obama's free ride may have given him he lead, but his approval ratings may change dramatically in the next few months - further reason and incentive for Clinton to not give up the fight.

The AmericanThinker has a piece that says that blacks supporting Hil have been threatened for not supporting the Messiah. Perhaps other quirks will come out to show that Obama is just another socialist pacifist like McGovern or worse, Carter!

A year ago black voters were asking "Is Barack Obama black enough" because Obama's handlers at that time were doing such a great job of convincing America that he wasn't really black - that he was biracial, etc.

"Black, in our political and social vocabulary, means those descended from West African slaves," wrote Debra Dickerson on the liberal website Salon.

But that was the 2007 Obama. What we saw in January of 2008 was Obama's campaign systematically stealing away from Clinton the black support that she enjoyed, as they portrayed Obama as MLK reincarnate in South Carolina.

You couldn't blame Barack Obama for feeling all biblical on that second Sunday in December. There he was, emerging triumphantly from the same tunnel where the Gamecocks football team spills out on Saturdays [...] with Oprah Herself hallooing above the din, "Bar-ack O-bam-a! Bar-ack O-bam-a!" If the skies had suddenly cracked open above Williams-Brice Stadium and God's voice boomed down "Vote for Barack" while a heavenly choir belted out "Oh Happy Day," it would have seemed like just another part of the show. Right here in Obama's must-win early primary state, where a new poll was showing him in a statistical dead heat with Hillary Clinton. Right here with the very people--mostly African-Americans and mostly women--who have given the Man from Audacity the roughest going-over of his political life. And still are.

"I am so grateful to be here today," Obama beamed, soaking up the adulation and sliding into dialect. "Givin' all praise and honor to Gahd. Look at the day that the Lord has made. I would be blessed even if I was in Chicago, but I don't mind being in seventy-degree weather." As the 29,000 cheered, he cut in, chuckling his rich chuckle: "Michelle said, 'Praise the Lawd!' It's been cooold up in Chicago!"

Yassuh, that's what he said ahl rite.

And what you will see next, once the nomination is nailed, is Obama moving away from his blackness with alarming speed.

All things to all people, all at the appropriate time. That's Obama. Now, if we only knew what he'd accomplished that qualifies him for the job of President, and if we only knew what he plans to do once he's in office...

Rasmussen is a gnome.

95% of Democrats will vote for whoever the Democratic nominee is against McCain because McCain is the established candidate of the party that implies that Democrats are traitors for not being Republicans or Joe Lieberman.

At least 10% of Republicans will abstain from voting or will vote against McCain for a whole slew of reasons that can be boiled down to bad government.

The majority of independents will vote against McCain for the same reasons as the 10% above whether seen from the perspective of right or the left.

Obama's negatives only matter within the context of Democratic nominating process (numbers! turn-out!), and fortunately for him he's harvesting the fruit of the GOP's 15 year anti-Clinton meme of gross venality, rape, and murder. These even may have given impetus for Democrats to realize the value of a reform candidacy if one should come along. It may have inspired Obama to see Hillary through GOP eyes and thus see a place for himself. Perhaps the occult meaning of Change pertains to the Clintons.

Either way, it's time to smell the coffee. The presidency is being decided among the Democrats.

A prediction: McCain will run a Bob Dole-style kabuki campaign.