This week in politics, the House rejected an Iraq (and Afghanistan) war funding bill, the two remaining contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination sparked a dust-up over an endorsement from the nation's pre-eminent pro-choice lobbying group, and a Democrat picked up the last of three once reliably Republican House seats that were contested this year's special elections.

All that, and California's Supreme Court stamped a big "OK" on the right to gay marriage. Are we back in the 1960s, or am I having a flashback? Is the American public moving left, and, if so, does that boost election chances for almost-nominee and extremely liberal Sen. Barack Obama to win the White House in November?

Terry McAuliffe, Sen. Hillary Clinton's campaign manager, was all over the cable news channels last night claiming Clinton's 2-to-1 win in West Virginia is proof that she and only she can win the White House for the Democratic Party in November—because of her support from white, working-class voters.

But an even more telling point about white, working-class voters and how some of them will vote when (and it looks like when, not if) Sen. Barack Obama becomes the Democratic nominee was made in an article in Tuesday's Washington Post. The monster lurking behind the curtain in the Democratic presidential contest is racism. Up to now, Obama's supporters in the extreme left wing of the Democratic Party have tried to ignore its existence. This article is proof that it not only exists; it is unfortunately alive and well, particularly in factory towns:

An atrocious string of thoroughly unnecessary and completely man-made (or man-caused) equine deaths lengthened this weekend with the Saturday death of a horse named Tigger Too in New Jersey at the Jersey Fresh horse trials.

I've written in this space about the "euthanization" of two horses at Florida's Red Hills cross-country trial in March. Two more were "euthanized" at Kentucky's Rolex competition last month. And, of course, one week ago, before a worldwide TV audience, filly Eight Belles was sacrificed on the altar of human ego, after "running her heart out" at the Kentucky Derby.

A Barack Obama presidency would cost America's entrepreneurial class dearly. Obama has pledged to lift the current cap on Social Security taxes if he becomes president. He'd get support in that venture from a Democratic-controlled Congress. According to the Social Security Administration's website, this means an additional 15.3 percent tax for self-employed people making more than $102,000 annually.

"The Social Security tax rate for 2008 is 15.3 percent on self-employment income up to $102,000," the site notes. "If your net earnings exceed $102,000, you continue to pay only the Medicare portion of the Social Security tax, which is 2.9 percent, on the rest of your earnings."

The May 6 primaries might go down in history as the deciding factor in why America failed to nominate its first female major-party presidential candidate in 2008. It's hard to see after Tuesday's election results how Sen. Hillary Clinton makes the case that she should be the Democratic nominee.

Her campaign pledged to carry on through May races in West Virginia and Kentucky. But in order to woo more superdelegates into her camp—and superdelegates are now the decisive factor in the Democratic nomination race—she had to score a more decisive victory than her narrow 2-point margin in Indiana. And she had to foil Sen. Barack Obama's attempt to score a double-digit lead in North Carolina, which she did not.

"There is nothing better for the inside of a man than the outside of a horse" is a quote by Winston Churchill often erroneously attributed to Ronald Reagan. But after this weekend's Kentucky Derby, it could be said, "There's nothing worse for the inside or outside of a horse than life on the track."

I've been writing these past few weeks about horrendous and fatal equine accidents in the sport of three-day eventing. I own seven hunter/jumper show horses and maintain my own 40-acre horse farm.

If you're a political junkie (as am I) you ought to know about or if not, check out this website. It tracks the superdelegate count in the Democratic presidential nomination race. Since the nomination race is over on the GOP side, it's the only "race" in town for numbers addicts.

It's called 2008 Democratic Convention Watch.