When the media start backing away from supporting a candidate or a cause, read this as a sign that media elite understand the public is seeing through the media's ruse of neutrality.

Witness this Web story, which includes a link to video of a live segment on MSNBC. One of the commentators waxes poetic about Sen. Barack Obama's rave visuals on his current trip abroad. (Quite frankly, I thought the video of Obama shooting hoops with the troops made him look less credible, not more.) The other takes a deep breath, steps back, and admits that the Obama campaign has manipulated media coverage during his trip to an extent not witnessed in recent presidential campaigns. And that's saying something.

The latest campaign finance figures show Sen. Barack Obama's pledge not to take money from lobbyists is a distinction without a difference.

He clobbered Sen. John McCain in fundraising last month, netting more than twice the amount of money raised by his rival. From Bloomberg:

Obama took in $51.9 million in June, including $1.4 million from a joint fundraising committee with the Democratic National Committee, while McCain reported raising $21.5 million, including $5.1 million from his fundraising effort with the Republican National Committee.

Democratic anti-Obama movement grows online. According to justsaynodeal.com cofounder Diane Mantouvalos in an online FoxNews.com video posted Thursday, the Democratic anti-Obama movement is growing online. Mantouvalos claims the number of Democratic anti-Obama websites is growing exponentially. Justsaynodeal.com, an anti-Obama Web site, lists some 160 websites that have sprung up to urge Democrats to vote for McCain so, these Hillary supporters hope, Senator Clinton can take on McCain in 2012.

Montouvalos told Foxnews.com one of these anti-Obama Dems is making a documentary. She also said some 250 organizations were on a conference call planning a major event three weeks before the Democratic convention next month in Denver. Stay tuned...

It's a pretty safe bet the majority of Barack Obama supporters also champion affirmative action or racial and gender preferences in employment, college admissions, and government contracting. It's an even safer bet most Obama supporters who want to hang onto what little federal courts still grant by way of racial and gender preferences have not considered the devastating impact an Obama presidency could have on those preferences, particularly racial preferences.

What impact would an African-American in the White House have on racial preferences? The liberal Left has not done much by way of debating the issue thus far in the presidential race. But the conservative Right sure has. The Boston Globe's website in March ran an article relating the fact that anti-affirmative action conservatives are "seizing" on Obama's run as proof of how passé race-based remedies are for past discrimination:

This weekend's RasmussenReports.com presidential tracking poll results are not good news for the Obama camp, despite the following caveats:

1. National daily presidential tracking polls are lousy predictors of electoral college results. They offer little insight into how key swing states will vote. In tight races, the White House is won in swing states. 2. Three-and-a-half months out from what we know is going to be a tight race, it is still way too early to give much credence to any poll.

The two presidential campaigns are entering rapid-response mode. Most recently Sen. Barack Obama lashed out at John McCain's economic adviser, former Texas Sen. Phil Gramm, for saying Americans are in a "mental recession."

McCain operatives did lash out at Gen. Wesley Clark's comments on CBS' Face the Nation last week denigrating McCain's POW experience (Clark said that it failed to qualify McCain to be president) . As a result, Clark's days as an Obama surrogate are apparently over.

Courtesy of Michael Vick, most Americans have now been exposed to the sordid underground world of dogfighting. Coverage of cockfighting and state or county bans against the horrendous practice in most venues have made us aware of the sadistic treatment some sorry humans inflict on those poor birds. The deaths of Eight Belles and Barbaro highlighted dangers humans impose on thoroughbred racehorses, which, one can hope, will lead to a more humanely regulated sport. But few of us are aware of the incredible cruelty visited on Tennessee Walking Horses by a small but powerful group of owners and trainers located predominantly in a few southern states.

The Lexington Herald-Leader reported this week that the vast majority of exhibitors who convened at an Owingsville horse show grounds scattered like buckshot when officials arrived to inspect the animals for signs of cruelty and cite the trainers and owners for federal violations.