JENNIFER RUBIN SAYS THE PRESS CAN’T SAVE OBAMA FROM HIMSELF:

Much has been said about (and several Saturday Night Live skits have lampooned) the media’s infatuation with Barack Obama. But sometimes a gaffe is so revealing and so encapsulates a candidate’s underlying fault lines (”I actually did vote for the $87M before I voted against it.”) that a sympathetic media can’t spin it away.

I think that’s right. And Jonathan Martin writes: “This story may only gain steam in the days ahead. . . . Obama’s comments play directly into an already-established narrative about his candidacy. “

This seems to be the story line: “A political tempest over Barack Obama’s comments about bitter voters in small towns has given rival Hillary Rodham Clinton a new opening to court working class Democrats 10 days before Pennsylvanians hold a primary that she must win to keep her presidential campaign alive.”

Though the “bitter” bit is the least of it. Obama’s self-contradiction on trade, guns, and religion is really the more damning part. And Taylor Marsh comments: “I’d say Obama made an amateur slip of the tongue, however, something about this statement, the glib nature of it combined with its specificity, makes me believe he actually feels this way.”

UPDATE: A photo essay, of sorts.