Obama Regains Mojo as Clinton Resumes Downward Slide

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With important new endorsements and rising new poll numbers, it would appear that Barack Obama has fully regained his pre-March 4 momentum while Hillary Clinton resumes the downward slide she was on before her short-lived March 4 "comeback." Obama's endorsement Friday by popular Pennsylvania senator Bob Casey was followed up today by a new endorsement from Minnesota senator Amy Klobuchar, as seven North Carolina House Democrats reportedly prepare to endorse Obama as a group before that state's May 6 primary. Klobuchar's announcement today brings the total of superdelegates won by Obama since Super Tuesday to 64, while Clinton has won only 9 (see Wall Street Journal, CNN).

Meanwhile, new poll numbers also confirm that any setback suffered by Obama on March 4 and as a result of the Jeremiah Wright controversy seems to have been quickly overcome. According to the latest Gallup Poll, Obama now leads Clinton by 10 percentage points nationally - Obama's first-ever double-digit national lead over Clinton, and the first for either candidate since Clinton lost hers over Obama in early February. These numbers confirm last week’s Pew Poll results indicating that Obama maintained his national lead despite the events of recent weeks, and seem certain to come as depressing news for the Clinton campaign.

Clinton, meanwhile, continues to be haunted by her past. As ABC News notes today, Clinton still claims that she was critical of NAFTA during her years as First Lady, even as these claims are coldly refuted by details from her own recently-released White House schedule. Campaigning in Indiana on Friday, as ABC observes, Clinton repeated earlier claims that she "spoke out against" NAFTA beginning in 1992. As ABC further observes, however, details from Clinton's White House schedule and the recollections of people on the scene at the time show that she actively participated in pro-NAFTA events and spoke out in favor of NAFTA throughout the 1990s. Clinton's story about facing sniper fire in Bosnia, meanwhile, appears to have had repercussions on both sides of the Atlantic. As the New York Post reports today, both the former acting Bosnian president and the little girl featured in news video of Clinton's arrival at Bosnia's Tuzla air base expressed shock and disappointment that the former First Lady would have so grossly distorted the details of her visit to their country.

"It's an exaggeration...," said former acting President Ejup Ganic, who was present at Clinton's arrival in Bosnia, "...There were no shots fired." Other Bosnians, obviously offended by Clinton's story, called it a "horrible lie" and a "low blow."

"Why is she so stupid?" the editor-in-chief of Bosnia's largest newspaper asked, "It doesn't portray her as a real leader."