however, is the impact on independents and Republicans who had been entranced by the young man from Chicago. Now, they wonder whether the appealing unifier is really a divider.

Obama is trying to change the subject, but he lost his cool demeanor when ABC News questioners Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos returned to his San Francisco statement (among other difficult issues) in Wednesday's debate. In watching campaign debates dating back to Kennedy-Nixon in 1960, I never before had seen a candidate criticize the moderator or challenge his premises so often (on at least eight occasions). "Look, let me finish my point here, Charlie," said Obama, after Gibson had interrupted him following a 126-word answer.

Barack Obama is an arrogant and thin-skinned liberal, who thinks he knows what's best for us all. Perhaps he thinks the Chicago Democrats' playbook of promising everything and managing nothing will work nationally, but Pennsylvania is a close approximation of the general electorate, even among Democrats, and his cautious and callow message of hope has worn so thin we can see what lies underneath--contempt. Contempt for many of us, and for America.

UPDATE: Michael Barone, WSJ, "The Keystone Primary Stakes". Interesting that the overall results may reflect the closeness of the national race, but with a different mix:

Politically, Pennsylvanians over the past 40 years have tended to be liberal on economic issues (favoring big government) and conservative on cultural issues. That leaves it closely divided between the two parties but at odds with the national trend, and the trend of the Democratic Party (at least in Bill Clinton's years as president) toward more conservative economics and liberal culture.

But in this primary season, Democrats, both Hillary and Obama, are campaigning on that old message of big government and are at least paying lip service to social conservative concerns. Barone says this later:

The Democrats' problem? Cultural conservatives with strength in western Pennsylvania couldn't raise money or win votes from cultural liberals in the Philly suburbs, while Philadelphia-area liberals bombed in the west.

The Democrats solved this problem in 2006, when Gov. Ed Rendell and Senate Democratic campaign committee chairman Chuck Schumer pre-empted the field for Bob Casey Jr., a fervent opponent of abortion. They ordered feminist liberals to contribute to and vote for Mr. Casey to produce a Democratic Senate. It worked.

That's why Obama scored a coup when he got the backing of Sen. Casey--but the message was undermined by Obama's recent contemptuous remarks about Casey's core constituency. Sen. McCain picks up on the Bill Ayers-Obama connection on the Sunday shows. Obama admits McCain is better than Bush, Hillary calls Obama a cheerleader:) McCain camp capitalizes:

McCain, for his part, is casting himself as an independent thinker with his own vision for the country and a record of fighting the status quo in nearly three decades in Washington.

Said Tucker Bounds, a McCain spokesman: "The remark underscores that John McCain has the strength to change America and move this nation forward. Barack Obama is a new face who represents old ideas."

Latest Pa. polls mixed here and here. National point and counterpoint--RCP Blog. UPDATE: HotAir picks up on Ayers. Via the Instapundit, Arthur Brooks, the former liberal professor who found out conservatives are more generous/compassionate, "Free People are Happy People". And more on the Rev. Wright, Stanley Kurtz, NRO. HT Powerline. PPP poll shows the Big O in the lead. Enjoy it now.

UPDATE: More Chicago stuff here. Scroll down for Chavez connections and more questions.

UPDATE: Andrew Sullivan likes Thomas What's the Matter with Kansas Franks' rant in the WSJ, with this featured within Sullivan's quote of the day, " I don't care whether they enjoy my books, or would rather have every scrap of paper bearing my writing loaded into a C-47 and dumped into Lake Michigan." Well, I'm not a NIMBY type--dump away. And if your rotten books wash up on tony Oak St. Beach or Wilmette harbor, so much the better. But I have a better scheme--Sen. Obama should hand them out on his whistle-stop tour of Pennsylvania, or maybe next time he hits his mom's home state.