Great report by ABC News’ Senior National Correspondent Jake Tapper on “Good Morning America” just now:

In Kokomo, Indiana — a handmade sign at a Clinton rally — “Hillary is the wright choice”….

Wright with a W…as in Rev. Wright, whom Senator Obama was asked about in Indianapolis.

OBAMA: “The situation with Reverend Wright is difficult.  I won’t lie to you.”

A new New York Times/CBS News poll shows just how difficult… he remains the choice of Democrats– 46% to Hillary Clinton’s 38% — his aura of inevitability has been skunked.

At the beginning of April 69% expected him to win the nomination…he still leads but he’s down 18 and she’s up 13.

No wonder Michelle Obama told NBC she’s ready to change the subject.

MICHELLE OBAMA: “We’ve got to move forward.  This conversation doesn’t help my kids.  This doesn’t help kids out there who were looking for us to make decisions and choices about how we’re going to better fund education.”

Interestingly, in a new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, McCain’s ties to President Bush are more of a concern to voters than Obama’s ties to Wright.

In Indiana, Clinton is reaching out to the white blue-collar types Obama has scheduled with …riding with one to a gas station and appearing on The Factor on Fox News.

O’REILLY: I’m not a middle class person.  I’m a rich guy.

HILLARY CLINTON:  “And you know what?  Rich people, God bless us.  We deserve all the opportunities to make sure our country and our blessing continue to the next generation.”

Her husband cheered her on in the North Carolina town of, um, Whiteville.

BILL CLINTON:  “She’s gonna end this thing roaring.”

“The North Carolina town of, um, Whiteville” — that’s the best part.  Remember how they used to knock Ronald Reagan around for announcing for President in 1980 somewhere near Philadelphia, Mississippi, the birthplace of the KKK?  Glad Bill Clinton seems to think we’ve outgrown such aversions.

Rough stuff …

Robert Boyd, Washington bureau chief for Knight-Ridder Newspapers, at the 1984 Vice Presidential debate:

“Congresswoman Ferraro, you have had little or no experience with military matters and yet you might someday find yourself commander-in-chief of the armed forces. How can you convince the American people and the potential enemy that you would know what to do to protect this nation’s security, and do you think in any way that the Soviets might be tempted to try to take advantage of you simply because you are a woman?”

Rougher stuff…

CNN’s Bernard Shaw, 1988 presidential debate:

“Governor, if Kitty Dukakis were raped and murdered, would you favor an irrevocable death penalty for the killer?”

Then there’s this question asked of Barack Obama …

George Stephanopoulos, 2008 Democratic debate:

“Senator, two questions. Number one, do you think Reverend Wright loves America as much as you do? And, number two, if you get the nomination, what will you do when those sermons are played on television again and again and again?”

The roughest stuff?  Hardly.  We align ourselves with what Jake Tapper tells Howard Kurtz:

ABC correspondent Jake Tapper defended his colleagues in an interview, saying: “They were tougher on Obama, yes. He’s the front-runner. By any empirical standard, many members of the media don’t seem to want to ask Senator Obama tough questions, and Senator Obama doesn’t seem to want to answer them. This is the 21st debate. It is the only one where people have complained that the moderators were tougher on Barack Obama than on Hillary Clinton or any other candidate. How on Earth is that possible?”

Good question.  We’re stumped too.

On “Good Morning America” this morning, like he did last night on “World News,” Jake Tapper unveiled the Tonya Harding Option for how Hillary Clinton can beat Barack Obama.

What’s the Tonya Harding Option?

Jake explains on his blog Political Punch:

l just spoke with a Democratic Party official, who asked for anonymity so as to speak candidly, who said we in the media are all missing the point of this Democratic fight.
…

“Her securing the nomination is certainly possible - but it will require exercising the ‘Tonya Harding option.’” the official said. “Is that really what we Democrats want?”

The Tonya Harding Option — the first time I’ve heard it put that way.

It implies that Clinton is so set on ensuring that Obama doesn’t get the nomination, not only is she willing to take extra-ruthless steps, but in the end neither she nor Obama win the gold.

(In this metaphor, presumably, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., would be Oksana Baiul. Does that make former President Bill Clinton Jeff Gillooly?)

Indeed, Baiul won the gold that year.  And Tonya Harding?  She finished eighth and was later banned for life from competitive figure skating.  But that’s where we pick up the Ralph Nader metaphor.

Who knew New Jersey was still the butt of so many jokes?

A loyal Extreme Mortman reader, who presumably never lived off a turnpike exit, saw our item about Jake Tapper’s electoral line in the sand and sends in this note and caption dumping, literally, on Jersey:

You missed Jake’s west coast feed…

Yes, that’s New Jersey, and it’s not syringes.

To which we can only say, that dog is one son of a beach.

Iconic political moments from the beach.

Richard Nixon…

Barack Obama …

and brand new, from the Florida primary, ABC News’ Senior National Correspondent & Senior Political Correspondent Jake Tapper…

That’s Deerfield Beach, Florida, near Boca Raton … and Jake’s inside an electoral map of the presidential campaign.

So, did rules dictate that a union guy had to draw the map for Tapper? Nope. Jake tells Extreme Mortman: “I drew it. History major, art minor.”

Jake also informs us: “We used seashells for Sacramento, Albany and Tallahassee.”

Which makes us hope that, for Super Tuesday coverage, ABC News doesn’t send Jake to cover New Jersey from the Jersey shore. Not much you can make out of washed-up syringes.

Jack Tapper brings back the harsh 1992 memories with this anecdote at the end of his Al Gore story at ABCNews.com today:

After Random House published 200,000 copies of “Putting People First: How We Can All Change America” — the soporific campaign tome purportedly written by then-Gov. Bill Clinton and then-Sen. Al Gore — the ill-fated re-election campaign of then-President George H.W. Bush filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission. Republicans alleged that the book deal constituted an illegal corporate contribution to the Democratic ticket, which didn’t directly profit financially from the book though the publicity certainly didn’t hurt. How quaint that book must now seem to those Republicans.

BIll Clinton is getting old. Or at least maturing in former office.

For ABC’s “World News Tonight” Saturday, the graying baby boomer sat down with Jake Tapper to discuss his 60th birthday.

At the end of the talk — “When I’m on the golf course and I can’t hit the ball as far as I used to” — Tapper presented Clinton with a pair of Elvis Presley sunglasses.

Did Clinton put them on in a predictable flashy ploy for attention? Nope. He just folded them up and said, “I’ll wear these over the weekend when I have the right togs on.”

Ah, we do miss the old days when Clinton couldn’t resist a thing.

Reporters love to catch politicians when they say something wrong.  But how often do reporters turn the tables on each other — catching and publicly calling out each other in the act of misspeaking?

Hardly ever.  Except for last night.

About a month ago, MBNBC’s David Shuster said on-air: “I am convinced that Karl Rove will, in fact, be indicted.”

In his piece last night on Rove not getting indicted, ABC News’ Jake Tapper included a clip of Shuster’s assertion.  And on his blog, Tapper put Shuster in the second sentence, calling it a “breathless prediction” and linking to the Shuster video on the menacingly titled crooksandliars site.

Both Tapper and Shuster are, in my opinion, two of the top political reporters on TV.  Both are scrappy and thorough.  And both are friends.  I worked closely with Shuster at “Hardball.”  No dog in this dust-up.  Just an interested observer.

You’ll love next week — we have an incredibly fabulous announcement to make here at Extreme Mortman.  We’ll welcome a guest celebrity media blogger — who will cover for Extreme Mortman an exciting, new, and under-reported angle to American politics: Food and politics.  More next week.  Stay tuned.  You won’t want to miss it.

Meantime, as we gear up for that stunner, imagine our excitement this morning to watch ”Good Morning America’s” story on the owner of Geno’s Steaks in Philly requiring customers to speak English when ordering cheesteaks.  As Joe Vento said, how much English do you need to know to say “Wiz Witout”?

But more thrilling was Jake Tapper’s set-up piece which expertly weaved — food and politics!  He reminded us of these two great cheesy moments from the 2004 campaign:

President Bush: “I like my cheesesteak ‘whiz with.’”

And:

ABC’s “Good Morning  America” seems to have settled on whom the 2008 Democratic presidential primary will feature: Al Gore and Hillary Clinton.  Last week Claire Shipman reported on Gore’s new global warming film “An Inconvenient Truth” in the context of his future plans.  This morning Jake Tapper explored Clinton’s Senate re-election campaign, with a healthy dose of 2008 speculation added in.  Question: will the major media profile a potential Democratic candidate other than these two?