redblueamerica.com

Funny thing about meat thermometers and ballpeen hammers. You pound one into your ear and you get the worst infection ever. Man, I hate it when that happens. Thank goodness for really powerful antibiotics. After a couple of days worth of bedrest, I feel pretty good. My hearing in the left ear is a little bit like a blown-out speaker in a '72 Chevy Impala, but it's improving.

Funny thing, too, about how the press covers politics. Barack Obama won North Carolina handily. Hillary Clinton won Indiana, but closely. In this strange and wonderful world in which we live, a win is only a win if you win by five points or more. The Solons of the Chattering Class are beginning to murmur more and more loudly about the need for a candidate to drop out. ABC calls Tuesday's results "a turning point." (Maybe.) Adam Nagourney of the New York Times suggests the split "was not a draw." And Marc Ambinder of the Atlantic wonders whether the Democratic Party is "cracking up." (No more than usual, Marc.) Man, Hillary must hate it when that happens.

As Joel and I discussed earlier on Tuesday, I think that any Republican strategy to draw out the Democratic primary fight was and is short-sighted and stupid. But I'm not at all sure that the media's effort to cut short the fight now is fair or just. Obama is weak, and the scrutiny of his ties to Jeremiah Wright, Bill Ayers and Tony Rezko hasn't helped. Clinton, however, is not as weak as she was six weeks ago. Man, Obama must hate it when that happens.

At this point, what difference does it make if the primary campaign continues for another month? The difference would be with the superdelegates, some of whom remain undecided as to whether Obama or Clinton is, in the parlance of the war, "the strong horse." Who can actually win?

Good question. Man, Al Gore must hate it when that happens.