Obama Sinks in Rasmussen Poll, Left Thrashes About

For what it's worth, Barack Obama dropped seven points in yesterday's Rasmussen tracking poll that matches him against Hillary Clinton. Rasmussen calls last night's sample "very favorable for Clinton." Although we don't know exactly how favorable, simple math says Clinton beat Obama by a lot last night - well into double digits. It would seem a reasonable supposition that Obama's internal polls showed some similarly disquieting data, and those numbers triggered Obama's sprint around the media last night.

How much damage the Meshugenah Minister scandal will do to Obama remains anyone's guess. Hey, it's possible that by this time next week, the talk will have completely shifted to another topic. Then again, that other topic may be Michelle Obama's rhetoric which bears uncomfortable America-bashing similarities to Reverend Wright's, or why exactly the Obamas depended on the financial help of a Chicago political fixer to buy their dream home in a year in which they netted a cool $1.6 million in combined income.

The reactions from the left regarding Obama's association with Reverend Wright have been interesting. Let me share a few. (The following excerpts are long, so if you decide to just skim them, I'll understand.)

Over at Open Left, the leading light of the liberal blogosphere, Matt Stoller, decried the "swiftboating" of Obama but then unsympathetically suggested that Obama brought it upon himself because he's "not a part of any progressive fights, so there's no independent organizing going on on his behalf from people who actually understand the right-wing media and how it operates."

At The American Prospect, Ezra Klein let loose the following jeremiad:

"Does anyone believe a long association with Jerry Falwell's church would have done anything but help McCain in the Republican primary, and gotten Democrats tagged as anti-religion when they tried to point out Falwell's nuttiness in the general? It's fine to be a Christian extremist in America. It's fine to believe, and say publicly, that everyone who hasn't accepted Jesus Christ into their heart will roast in eternal hellfire, fine to believe that the homosexuals caused Hurricane Katrina and the feminists contributed to 9/11, fine to believe we must support Israel so the Jews can be largely annihilated in a war that will trigger the End Times, fine to believe we're in a holy battle with the barbaric hordes of Islam, fine to believe that we went to the Middle East to prove 'our God is bigger than your God.' What you can't believe is that blacks have suffered a long history of oppression in this country, that they're still face deep institutional discrimination, and that a country where 100 percent of the presidents have been rich white guys is actually run by rich white guys. More to the point, even if you do believe those things, you certainly can't be angry about it!"

At the Daily Kos, Jennifer Bruenjes (who blogs under the name "Scout Finch") whiffs the fetid stench of a media double standard:

"Without weighing in on whether or not the content of Reverend Jeremiah Wright's sermons should be denounced by Barack Obama, I do find one aspect of this story quite troubling. We have now seen more sermons from Barack Obama's minister in 48 hours than we ever did of Mike Huckabee ---- and Mike Huckabee was a presidential candidate for 14 long months. Why is it acceptable to scour every last sermon given by Wright, but only weeks ago we weren't allowed to see or read Mike Huckabee's sermons? In fact, not only was it totally ignored by the traditional media, but the few times the question of Huckabee's sermons was raised, it was brushed aside as inappropriate."