OVER AT SALON, they’re worried about Obama’s sudden polling crash. Maybe the politics of division and demonization doesn’t do much to burnish the image of a guy who ran as a postpartisan transformer?

UPDATE: The New York Times caught cocooning in public. “These are not close results. It’s hard to read this poll and not conclude that, contrary to some accounts, Obama wasn’t such a genius to pick a fight over mandated contraception coverage–because he appears to be losing the public debate on the question. That’s a conclusion the Times story effectively hides from readers. It’s also one possible explanation for Obama’s otherwise somewhat mystifying overall drop in approval during the period–March 7-11–when the poll was in the field. But not an approved explanation. Gas prices are the official MSM explanation. Got it? Gas prices.”