Donald Lambro  WASHINGTON -- The 2008 presidential election is
about seven months away, the Democrats' nomination process faces
a deadlock that threatens to split the party, and both its
candidates are trailing John McCain.  It wasn't supposed to be
this way. With the Republicans presiding over an unpopular war,
the economy in turmoil, the housing and credit markets in a
slump, skyrocketing gas prices and the legislative agenda in
gridlock, the conventional wisdom holds that the GOP stands
little chance of retaining the White House in such a bleak
political environment.  But in an unexpected turn of events, the
Democratic candidates are on the defensive, and McCain is
leading them in the latest Reuters news poll by six to eight
points. Freshman Sen. Barack Obama has been reluctantly forced
to explain a 20-year relationship with Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the
pastor of his church whose hateful racial condemnation of white
America threatens to seriously damage his presidential bid.
Indeed, his downturn in the polls