The Filter: April 16, 2008

A round-up of this morning's must-read stories.

FIGHT LEAVES DEMOCRATS QUESTIONING PROSPECTS
(Jeff Zeleny, New York Times)
Indeed, advisers to Mr. Obama concede, his job has been made that much more complicated by his remarks about bitterness among small-town voters. Though it remains unclear what effect the episode will have in the long run, it has suddenly prompted a series of questions — and worry — from Democrats about whether Mr. Obama could weather a Republican onslaught in the fall, should he win the presidential nomination.In Pennsylvania, as well as coming primaries in Indiana and North Carolina, did Mr. Obama provide another excuse for white voters to voice qualms about his candidacy without acknowledging that it is his race that troubles them? If he defeats Mrs. Clinton, will accusations of elitism dog him as they have previous Democratic nominees? Does Senator John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, suddenly have an issue that will resonate for the next six months?

MORE: Obama Works on Appeal to Working-Class Voters (Chicago Tribune)
The political judgment they make in the Pennsylvania Democratic primary next Tuesday will be one of the next great tests in the presidential campaign. They will be a crucial constituency in the primary. But possibly more significantly, their votes will provide a fresh reading on the appeal of Barack Obama among white working-class voters that party officials and convention superdelegates will be watching, along with results from the Indiana primary on May 6, as they consider whether to fall in behind Obama and end a potentially divisive contest for the Democratic nomination.

INVENTING JOHN MCCAIN
(Sasha Issenberg, Boston Globe)
This is a political project, but also a literary one, initiated by Mark Salter, the Arizona senator's closest aide and one frequently described as his alter ego, who for nearly two decades has made telling McCain's stories his own life's work. As coauthor of a pair of memoirs and nearly every considered word out of McCain's mouth, Salter has transformed his boss into a character worthy of literature, enlivening his inner conflicts and drawing out his motivations. Salter has given the blunt McCain a new voice as a reflective narrator of his own actions - made evident in the "imperfect servant" line, in which our protagonist earns our trust by acknowledging his flaw. 

DEMS ENTER THE DEAD ZONE
(Michael Goodwin, New York Daily News)
When they face off Wednesday night in their Pennsylvania debate, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama will be fighting each other for the Keystone State's 158 delegates. But they'll also be fighting a common foe: A growing belief that neither can win the general election in November. It's a problem Clinton has had all along, and Obama, despite being the front-runner, is now proving he belongs in the same soup. Clinton started with half of America's voters saying they would never support her for President, and the number hasn't budged. Against Republican John McCain, she would have to win virtually every voter who hasn't already decided against her. Obama is closing in on her dubious distinction. His slam against small-town Americans, saying they "cling to guns and religion" out of bitterness over the economy, is certain to cost him in Pennsylvania among the white working-class voters he had trouble attracting in other states.

WITH CLOCK RUNNING OUT, DEBATE LOOMS LARGE
(Carrie Budoff Brown, Politico)
With limited opportunities to alter the direction of the race, Clinton must aim to take advantage of the spotlight and continue to cast doubt about Obama's electability in November. Heading into the debate after some of the toughest weeks of his campaign, Obama will have to lure back voters who may grown uneasy with his candidacy. He will likely have to explain, yet again, what he meant when he told donors in San Francisco last week that Pennsylvanians are “bitter” over their economic circumstances and “cling” to religion and guns. And he may also have to revisit his relationship with his former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, another controversy that erupted since Obama and Clinton last debated in February. 

OBAMA HAS TIES TO LOBBYISTS DESPITE BOASTS OF NOT TAKING THEIR MONEY
(Ken Dilanian, USA Today)
Barack Obama often boasts he is "the only candidate who isn't taking a dime from Washington lobbyists," yet his fundraising team includes 38 members of law firms that were paid $138 million last year to lobby the federal government, records show. Those lawyers, including 10 former federal lobbyists, have pledged to raise at least $3.5 million for the Illinois senator's presidential race. Employees of their firms have given Obama's campaign $2.26 million, a USA TODAY analysis of campaign finance data shows. Thirty-one of the 38 are law firm partners, who typically receive a share of their firm's lobbying fees. At least six of them have some managerial authority over lobbyists. "It makes no difference whether the person is a registered lobbyist or the partner of a registered lobbyist, if the person is raising money to get access or curry favor," said Michael Malbin, director of the Campaign Finance Institute, a non-partisan think tank.

COMEBACK KID ON A COMEDOWN TOUR
(Jason Horowitz, New York Observer)
At what was the first event in a Sunday sweep through the state, Mr. Clinton exhibited all the folksy charm, encyclopedic intelligence, righteous anger and subtle-but-penetrating digs at an opponent—in this case, Barack Obama—that have made him, bar none, the best campaigner of his generation. He has put at his wife’s disposal assets of incalculable value: a razor-sharp strategic mind, decades’ worth of powerful connections and, of course, the most resonant name in Democratic politics. It’s something of a wonder, then, that it’s actually an open question within the party whether Mr. Clinton has helped or hurt his wife’s campaign, and whether he has done damage to his own legacy. (The answer to the first seems to change depending on the week, or even the day; the answer to the second, at least according to what polls tell us about short-term public opinion, is yes.)