Obama Struggles, Sort Of, In the Arkansas Primary

First Barack Obama encountered some unexpected opposition in the Oklahoma primary, with 18 percent of the vote going to anti-abortion crusader Randall Terry and 14 percent to perennial gadfly candidate Jim Rogers. Then Louisiana gave nearly 12 percent of its vote to John Wolfe, a Chattanooga lawyer challenging the president from the left (*), though the party is trying to deny Wolfe the delegates he is due. Then West Virginia Democrats awarded 41 percent of their ballots -- that's 41, not 14 -- to Keith Judd, a self-described "Rastafarian-Christian" who says he is a former member of the "Federation of Super Heroes" and who is currently serving time in a federal penitentiary in Texas. Now a survey in one of Arkansas' four congressional districts shows the president polling just seven points ahead of Wolfe, 45 percent to 38.

That's a district, and not (as I initially, overexcitedly read it) the whole state. And it doesn't really have anything to do with Wolfe's platform: Randall Terry aside, all these candidates are basically getting votes for Generic Other Guy. But if Wolfe wins the district, he'll deserve his golden asterisk in the presidential history books. Though if I had my druthers, the victory would go to Vermin Supreme.

(* The economic left, anyway: Apparently he's to the president's right on gay marriage.)