Over the weekend and this morning Barack Obama's former pastor Reverend Jeremiah Wright burst back onto the national scene - this time by his own choice and in full context. In doing so he has created the most significant challenge to Barack Obama's quest for the presidency. Jeremiah Wright's reemergence may be fatal to Barack Obama's candidacy.

It is the last weekend before the Pennsylvania primary. Most of the polling has been completed and now all that remains is for the Democrats in Pennsylvania to make their preferences known. In the last month and a half, Barack Obama has shrunk what appeared to be a 20 point Hillary Clinton advantage to about 5 points, according to the latest poll of polls at Pollster.com. According to Pollster, Hillary Clinton leads Barack Obama 47.4% to 42.3% with 10.3% undecided. Because of the large number of undecideds among voters whose demographic favors Clinton, many are saying that this could result in a double digit Clinton win in Pennsylvania. If the results indeed show a double digit Clinton win it would conform to what has been long expected in Pennsylvania. However, my sense is that the results will be much closer.

The Hillary Clinton campaign is very worried about what the right-wing noise machine will do to Barack Obama should he become the Democratic nominee. So, in a friendly show of Democratic solidarity, the Clinton campaign has been digging up and throwing all the right-wing talking points it can find at Barack Obama. The Clinton campaign says that they are doing this now so Obama will be ready for the Republicans in November. The Clinton campaign is so committed to helping out the likely Democratic nominee that they have even prepared a three-page essay containing right-wing attacks on Barack Obama. I thank the Clinton campaign for such foresight and for their due diligence. I have no doubt they are committed to getting Barack Obama elected in November.

There was something very odd about last night's Democratic presidential debate on ABC. Certainly the bulk of the debate was directed at challenging Barack Obama on issues that Hillary Clinton has tried to make hay off in the last month and a half. Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos were not shy about going after Obama with every right-wing talking point available, including a question given to Stephanopoulos by right wing talking head Sean Hannity. But, even with all the attacks thrown at Obama on the excuse that Republicans would attack him with these so the moderators should, there was something very odd about the debate. Last night I could not put my finger on it.

<iframe src="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22425001/vp/18336877#18336877" frameborder="0" width="425" scrolling="no" height="339"></iframe>

[Link to MSNBC debate video]

Hillary Clinton's parade of serial exaggerations/lies continued today. In her desperate attempt to appeal to gun owners in Pennsylvania and Indiana, she was out touting her "experience" with guns:

It is ironic that the Hillary Clinton campaign is hitting back hard against Governor Bill Richardson for endorsing Barack Obama. Attack dog James Carville has called Richardson a "Judas" and disloyal. Bill Clinton has said that Richardson told him "five times" he would not endorse Obama. The Clinton campaign is up in arms because they perceive Bill Richardson as somehow disloyal.

The Tennessean newspaper is reporting that Al Gore is poised to endorse Barack Obama at a news conference Wednesday:

Former Vice President Al Gore's office confirms that he will endorse Democratic Senator Barack Obama tomorrow morning. The Senator from Illinois was able to secure the much sought after endorsement on a telephone call with the Vice President last night.

Throughout this race the Clinton campaign has maintained that the superdelegates should use their own judgment in deciding which candidate to back. Clinton has maintained that superdelegates are not beholden to the will of the people. Her thuggish backers have even tried to blackmail Speaker Pelosi and the DCCC - superdelegates - into backing Senator Clinton.

I agree. I think the superdelegates should decide this race. And they should decide it in favor of the candidate who is likely to actually win the presidency - Barack Obama.

Dith Pran, who survived the Killing Fields of Cambodia, has died today at the age of 65. Dith Pran was Sydney Schanberg's photographer and journalistic partner in Cambodia. When Phnom Penh fell to the Khmer Rouge in 1975, Schanberg was expelled from the country. Schanberg arranged for Dith Pran's wife and children to be evacuated to the United States, but Pran stayed behind.

Tonight on CNN's Larry King Live James Carville continued his attack on Governor Bill Richardson. He called Richardson "disloyal" for endorsing Barack Obama. And he named names. When asked to explain he said that he would provide initials of people who had told him that Richardson agreed to endorse Hillary Clinton. Then, inexplicably, he named three names - not initials - of people who supposedly had been assured by Richardson that he supported Hillary Clinton. Two of the names he rattled off were Haim Saban and Alan Patricof.

Today marks 37 years of independence for a tiny country I love, a country that gave me birth before it was itself born, a country founded on the belief that freedom is precious and worth dying for, a country of brave martyrs and brave survivors, a country of unfulfilled promises called Bangladesh.

I wrote earlier this week that I did not believe Hillary Clinton was lying about her experience in Bosnia. Instead, I questioned her perception of the event. While others may have found the trip to be safe, she may have had a heightened threat perception. Today Newsweek adds another wrinkle to this theory in an article on Hillary Clinton's Bosnia trip. Newsweek demonstrates that Hillary Clinton's tale of Tuzla has grown in the telling. Each new retelling has been embellished further, until it has now become a story with fictional sniper fire and fictional ducking and covering. Her threat perception has grown as she has gotten further in time from her trip to Bosnia, and closer in time to the Democratic National Convention.

Last week Jim Vandehei and Mike Allen wrote in The Politico that people who think that Hillary Clinton can still win the Democratic nomination "are living on another planet." Yet today on CNN, the mid-day anchor referred to Barack Obama's lead in delegates as "razor thin". Giving CNN and other media the benefit of the doubt, it is worth examining how Hillary Clinton can catch up to Barack Obama and claim the Democratic nomination for President of the United States.

The Washington Post has exposed Hillary Clinton's little fib about her Bosnia trip. Hillary Clinton told her audience earlier this week that her trip to Bosnia was dangerous. She said:

"I remember landing under sniper fire. There was supposed to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the airport, but instead we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base."

The problem of course is what she said happened never happened. The Washington Post dug up pictures and video from the greeting ceremony in Bosnia. Sinbad was there, an 8 year old girl was there, Hillary Clinton was there. However, there was no running with heads down and there was no sniper fire.

I am certain that when Bobby Kennedy asked us to stand up for our ideals, there was some partisan in American politics who had two questions for him.

I am certain that when John Kennedy asked not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country, there was some partisan in American politics who had two questions for him.

I am certain that when Dr. Martin Luther King had a dream of America for all our children, there was some partisan in American politics who had two questions for him.

I am certain that when Franklin Delano Roosevelt told us that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself, there was some partisan in American politics who had two questions for him.

My life began the year that of Robert Francis Kennedy was taken away. Yet I have been moved by his words. Growing up, Bobby Kennedy represented to me the promise and the possibility of America. It is that promise that brought me to its shores and it is that promise that makes me proud to be a citizen.

[Follow up to this Daily Kos diary on Hillary Clinton's pledge]

Since Hillary Clinton now is trying desperately to change the rules so she can get Michigan and Florida beauty pageant primaries to count in her favor, it is worth remembering the pledge that she made.

Ever since Hillary Clinton cited her 1996 USO trip to Bosnia with Sinbad and Sheryl Crow as an example of her commander-in-chief qualifications, the pundits have been scratching their heads in bemusement. Today the Obama campaignresponded forcefully to Mrs. Clinton's so called commander-in-chief credentials. Then, unexpectedly, Sinbad has responded by ridiculing Mrs. Clinton for her characterization of the Bosnia trip:

In an interview with the Sleuth Monday, he said the "scariest" part of the trip was wondering where he'd eat next. "I think the only 'red-phone' moment was: 'Do we eat here or at the next place.'"