The Obama bandwagon

It grows day by day. As Clinton starts to be less of a sure thing and Obama gives Democrats someone who looks like an option they can be happy with - you are going to be reading more glowing pieces like Nicholas Kristoff's, "Obama: Man of the World." Reading this, you can almost feel the dislike of the author of all things he thinks Republican are - and for some reason Alabama.

One thing caught my eye that was very smart of Obama. Get it out early, and make it funny.

“I was a little Jakarta street kid,” he said in a wide-ranging interview in his office (excerpts are on my blog, www.nytimes.com/ontheground). He once got in trouble for making faces during Koran study classes in his elementary school, but a president is less likely to stereotype Muslims as fanatics — and more likely to be aware of their nationalism — if he once studied the Koran with them.

Mr. Obama recalled the opening lines of the Arabic call to prayer, reciting them with a first-rate accent. In a remark that seemed delightfully uncalculated (it’ll give Alabama voters heart attacks), Mr. Obama described the call to prayer as “one of the prettiest sounds on Earth at sunset.”

Moreover, Mr. Obama’s own grandfather in Kenya was a Muslim. Mr. Obama never met his grandfather and says he isn’t sure if his grandfather’s two wives were simultaneous or consecutive, or even if he was Sunni or Shiite.

The fact that he studied the Koran as a kid should be a non-issue. It will be once it becomes "old news." If this came out late and it looked like he was trying to downplay it - it would have been devastating. Now, nosomuch - he hit just the right tone.

I am starting to think more and more that the Democrat side of the house is about to get nasty. Outside a few true believers - few actually like Hillary. They fear her and what she might do to them. As that fear goes, so will her chance at the White House.

Obama is starting to look like a threat. The Clinton team is sharp, nasty, and will only accept victory. If Obama is seen as a threat, they will go out to destroy him.

Don't count out Obama in a fight though. OK, he is a man of the Left - but he is very smart, very sure, and will not go easy into the night so Sen. Clinton can walk to what she sees as hers. No.