If you have a bone of compassion in your body, you gotta feel for the women. This was their year, dude! Finally, finally, 88 years after getting the right to vote, one of their own was poised, on the brink, an easy primary season and a walkover general election away from the presidency.

This was big. This was huge. A woman president. Not Vice President, not Ladies’ Auxiliary President, not Presidentette, but President of The United States of America. The biggest job in the world.

Forty-six percent (46%) of America’s Likely Voters favor a federal gas tax holiday this summer. A Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 42% are opposed and 12% are not sure. Most voters who earn more than $75,000 a year oppose the gas tax holiday. Most who make less than $60,000 a year favor that policy change. Among those make less than $20,000 a year, 62% favor the gas tax holiday while only 11% are opposed

OPEC may decide to increase production taking pressure off of prices and feightening speculators who account for 20-40% of crude oil costs. Analyst say there is an even change crude will fall below $100 a barrel if OpPEC increases production.

Ah, it’s the political season and the hypocrisy is running rampant. I’ve been hearing for weeks now about how Hillary Clinton has to get out of the race. This recommendation has come from a number of different sources, from the talking heads that deliver the news to George McGovern, a former Clinton supporter who recently turned tail and defected to Obama. But, hey, don’t worry. They’re making this recommendation because it’s good for the party. Continuing the race is not good for the party. I really hate to be the one to point this out to those so much more politically astute than myself, but it isn’t about the party, stupid. It’s about the people. In the end, the process of electing the president belongs to the people and that is exactly what our forefathers intended.

What we know is that there’s still a race. According to the latest CNN estimates, Obama has 1,845 delegates, to Clinton’s 1,686. That’s a difference of 159 delegates. Neither Obama nor Clinton will win the 2,025 delegates needed to take the nomination. * To me that says there is no clear mandate and absolutely no reason for Hillary Clinton to quit. Every single vote should count, and there are still people who want to support Hillary Clinton. The supporters I am referring to are not the not-so-super superdelegates, nor the out-to-pasture former Democratic demagogues, like George McGovern. I am referring to the people who take the time out from their day to visit the polls and cast their votes. Even Nancy Pelosi weighed in on the subject Thursday saying, “The people should all have the opportunity to speak as long as two candidates wish to compete in those primaries and caucuses.”

The use of superdelegates makes a sham of the election process because it allows Democratic Party ‘elitists’ to unduly influence and control the outcome of the election. It takes the power away from the people and that is definitely not what our forefathers intended.

Hillary Clinton is not the first Democrat to take her case all the way to the convention. Gene McCarthy (1968), Ted Kennedy (1980), Gary Hart (1984), and Jesse Jackson (1988) came before her. Let’s allow the political process to play itself out the way it should. The election should not be hijacked by a bunch of political insiders.

*Obama can win the 2,025 with the superdelegates included.

Rev Wright hurt continuing to grow for OBama says a new Rasmussen Poll. Only 4% of American adults believe that comments made by Barack Obama’s former Pastor have helped Obama’s bid for the White House. Sixty-six percent (66%) believe that the comments made by Reverend Jeremiah Wright have hurt Obama’s chances of winning.

However, just 24% say that Obama’s denunciation of his former Pastor make them more likely to vote for him. Twenty-seven percent (27%) say it makes them less likely to support the Illinois Senator. As you would expect, these results break sharply along partisan lines. Democrats, by a 35% to 20% margin say they are more likely to vote for Obama because he publicly denounced Wright. Republicans, by a 38% to 15% margin, say the opposite. Among those not affiliated with either major party, 17% are more likely to vote for Obama, 25% less likely.

Clinton lead OBama in Indiana 46-41% and OBama leads Clinton in North Carolina 49-40%according to polling released Tuesday morning.

Newsweek’s Allison Samuels writes in the May 11 Issue of NEWSWEEK that Oprah Winfrey joined Barack Obama’s Church to be with Chicago’s movers and shakers and left it in part because Rev Jeremiah Wright ‘incendiary’ rhetoric made her uncomfortable and that could hurt her professionally and because of her disquiet with organized religion. Oprah, says Samuels, was “blindsided” by Wright’s assault on Obama because she says Wright was a father figure. to Obama.

The article describes Obama as a man in search of his identity as a Black-American, and more importantly as a Black-American man. Samuels contends Wright and other men in the church helped him understand the Black-American experience.

Winfrey says Samuels had been around black churches all her life and was used to anger-filled messages. But, she decided her mainstream audience and doing anything to offend them ( including being around Wright) wouldn’t be smart.

Samuels’ article begs the question : If staying around Wright wouldn’t be smart in the judgment of an entertainer why would it be otherwise judged by a man desiring to be President with the greatest audience of all to answer to - the entire American people?

Just 30% of the nation’s Likely Voters believe Barack Obama denounced his former Pastor, Jeremiah Wright, because he was outraged. Most—58%–say he denounced the Pastor for political convenience according to a Rasmussen Poll released Friday. Only 33% of voters believe that Obama was surprised by the views Wright expressed at Monday’s press conference. Fifty-two percent (52%) say he was not surprised.

Fifty-six percent (56%) say it’s at least somewhat likely that Obama “shares some of Pastor Wright’s controversial views about the United States.” Just 7% of the nation’s voters agree with Wright’s views of the United States. African-American voters, by a 64% to 12% margin, disagree with Wright. Seventy-four percent (74%) of Republicans believe it’s somewhat or very likely that Obama shares some of Wright’s views. That assessment is shared by 48% of Democrats and 49% of those not affiliated with either major party.

In Indiana Clinton attracts 46% of the Democrat votes while Obama earns 41%. With just a week to go before Election Day, 13% remain undecided. Clintonleads by nineteen percentage points among White voters. Obama leads 90% to 4% among African-Americans.

In North Carolina Barack Obama leads Hillary Clinton 49% to 40%. Earlier this week, Obama led by fourteen, 51% to 37%. A month ago, Obama led by twenty-three percentage points. Clintonleads by twenty-three points among White voters while Obama leads 74% to 10% among African-Americans. Clintonleads among senior citizens, the candidates split those in the 50-64 age range, and Obama leads among younger voters.

“…just terrible, absolutely dreadful,” a prominent supporter of Barack Obama said Monday morning after listening to the Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s screed at the National Press Club. Obama is hemorrhaging so badly that he is metaphorically simply bleeding to death politically. NPR reporter-Fox commentator Juan Williams, himself black, told Robert Novak Wright’s demagoguery is “ridiculous. I never have heard that in church.” The damage has been severe with Obama’s unfavorable ratings jumping up and his polling numbers falling.

Rev. Wright’s rants, as Obama now calls his pontifications, are simply wrong. Joe Conason says, “So long as a religious or political leader sounds sufficiently “militant” and seems to outrage white people, he (or she) must be not only accepted and excused but celebrated. That is why Minister Louis Farrakhan — the Nation of Islam leader who shares responsibility for the conspiracy to murder Malcolm X and whose theology of hovering spaceships and evil big-headed scientists is highly eccentric, to be polite — enjoys fulsome admiration from the likes of Wright. That is why the Rev. Al Sharpton — who was paid and financed by Republican dirty tricksters in 2004 — still somehow wields influence in the media and politics. And that is why Wright himself can insinuate that the government purposely invented AIDS, and claim that the brains of white and black children function differently (a notion that would rightly be dismissed as racist idiocy coming from a white academic or preacher).”

In contrast to Obama tawdry performance Hillary Clinton was on Fox News’ O’Reilly Factor looking the reasonable, measured, thoughtful candidate with good judgment.

The question writ large is, “Can Obama escape his toxic mentor or more specifically be excused for what has turned into a history of a dishonesty about ongoing relationships with the likes of Rev. Wrong?” So far the answer is an emphatic “No.”