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Role Reversal For Obama

Picking up on Noam's observation below about Obama's tough presser and the media mood right now, ABC's "World News Tonight" was a total disaster for Obama this evening. The show opened with a very positive segment about a momentum-filled Hillary: We see a woman tell Clinton "you look so young!" A crowd chants "We love you Hillary!" Then it's a substantive update on the Goolsbee/NAFTA flap.

Next, an Obama segment which consists of a highly detailed look at the Rezko case, complete with aerial images of Obama's house and the grim imprimatur of investigative correspondent Brian Ross. Finally, it was footage of that Obama presser, including a few seconds of the candidate walking away as the Chicago Sun-Times's tenacious Lynn Sweet shouts at him that his campaign had been "disingenuous" about Goolsbee. ABC correspondent David Martin's dour kicker: "The press corps had a lot more questions he didn't stay to answer." 

I'm also told that CNN's Lou Dobbs absolutely went to town on the Goolsbee flap this evening, which could almost be worth a point or two in Ohio right there.

The good news for Hillary is she has a stiff wind at her back; this might be the best news cycle she's had in a month. The bad news is that if she can't do well under these conditions, it's game over. 

--Michael Crowley