Who You Know Better Than O? Riddle Me That

The first major national poll taken since Sen. Barack Obama's speech on race in America shows Obama and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton in a virtual tie, reversing Obama's slide in the polls after the wide airing of controversial remarks made by his pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

"It's hard to disentangle the impact of (Obama's) speech," Gallup Poll Editor in Chief Frank Newport said Tuesday. The latest Gallup Poll, taken March 22, showed the Illinois senator with 47 percent of the national Democratic vote and Clinton with 46. On March 18 - the day of Obama's speech - after clips of Wright's sermons had permeated the media, Clinton held a seven-point lead over Obama.

Said Newport: "All we know is that he made a speech, and a couple of days later, he was tied with Hillary when a couple days before he was down seven points."

Obama's much-praised speech called on Americans to break the racial stalemate that has long divided the country, frankly addressing the prejudices and fears of both blacks and whites.

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The speech has been widely compared to when Kennedy addressed a Protestant ministers' convention in Houston in September 1960. We commend Obama on keeping it real, and discussing an issue in our society that is far more important than our economy. He's determined on change, and this is how change happens, going against the grain. What other politicians do you know that would have addressed racial issues within our country? Exactly, one of the many reasons why Expressive Frontier supports the Obama campaign.

Obama Connects Four

Democrat Barack Obama hoped to extend his winning streak over Hillary Clinton on Tuesday in their bruising Democratic presidential race as voters made their choices in three battlegrounds around the U.S. capital.

In the Democratic race, the Clinton camp conceded that Obama was favored in all three contests. Obama, who would be the first black U.S. president, holds a small lead in the state-by-state competition to represent the party in the November election.

But the first-term senator from Illinois -- who has suffered some primary losses to Clinton despite leading in pre-vote opinion polls -- sought to play down expectations at a morning visit to a doughnut shop in Washington.

"I'm never expected to win," he told reporters as he shook hands with voters and waited for his order. "I don't win until I win. I was expected to win in New Hampshire. We lost. I remember that."

Obama easily swept four contests over the weekend in the states of Maine, Louisiana, Nebraska and Washington, edging past Clinton in the race for pledged delegates who formally select a party nominee at a convention in August.