OBAMA, NO LONGER THE DELAY LAMA?

We hear the phrase, we feel the timber, Barak Obama has found his voice. And as a result, he’s now 3% ahead in the Democratic Iowa primary polls and has closed the gap considerably as those of the New Hampshire contest as well. Perhaps, recent gaffs by Senator Clinton has made Democrats wary of the Hill she has to climb to be elected (sorry) and, perhaps the skilled Frank Rich is right by saying the number of those who won’t vote for Mr. Obama because of race is an exaggeration. We hope he’s right at least about America not being as racist now as in prior times but a glance back to an earlier age, say around 2000, gives us pause on the poll-arity of such an assumption, both as to race and gender. Consider please two races: Democrats Hillary Clinton and Ron Kirk ran for Senate, Hil in NY, Mr. Kirk, in Texas. The election eve polls, and we’ll admit this is partially by memory went like this, Mrs. Clinton was + 6% and Mr. Kirk was dead even. She won by 12%, he lost by 12. Now, what these numbers mean: as to race and gender, prejudice or participation, we’re not sure; we’re just telling you folks what the scoreboard said.