Having spent the last year running an uphill but essentially problem-free campaign against Hillary Clinton, he’s now facing his first real problem:  he has faltered.  He hasn’t wiped out or hit the ground, bloodied and exhausted.  He’s just swayed a little bit. But in the context of this Democratic race, swaying even slightly puts a tinge of blood in the water.  And the Queen of the Piranhas is swimming right to it.

Over the last few days, Obama came out against NAFTA while telling the Canadians on the down low that he didn’t really mean it.  Obama’s longtime fundraiser and Chicago political fixer, Tony Rezko, went on trial yesterday for corruption, extortion, and fraud.  The associates around Mr. Rezko—and some say around Senator Obama—-are guys like fugitive Iraqi billionaire Nadhmi Auchi, Baathist fugitive Aiham Alsammarae, and American terrorists Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dorhn.  Obama has had to answer repeated questions about his own faith.  He’s become prickly with the press, on whom it’s finally dawned that they know nothing about the guy—because they never really asked.

To Hillary, this is manna from heaven.  The Saint is being made human.  The celestial choirs have stopped strumming their harps.  The light is fading.  Maybe not profoundly, but enough to give Hillary an opening.  Obama has his back up.  He’s on the defensive.  Which means Hillary is seizing the offense.  Politics changes on a dime.  If there’s even a slight shift in momentum toward her as Democrats start to question whether Obama is primetime-ready, she will ride it as far as it will take her.  Through this week.  Through the Pennsylvania primary on April 22.  Through the convention, if necessary.

The Queen of the Piranhas will never let a tasty meal float by.

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