Just breaking out of Ohio:

Courtesy of Marc Ambinder the Obama campaign has sent poll monitors out to challenge Clinton voters across Ohio who but those monitors are not properly credentialed.

They are only carrying a letter from Paul Tewes, Obama's Ohio State Director. It turns out that you need to be registered with a local judge to be "monitoring" polls.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is reporting certain precincts in Milwaukee are running out of ballots and requested more from the city.

The report goes on to say the precincts are apparently on the east side of Milwaukee and around Marquette University.  I believe both would favor Obama, but not sure.

In the breaking news department...

I thought this would have made the main page by now, but this very interesting analysis has surfaced today:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8M6x1H08a Fc

It clearly shows Obama lifting Deval Patrick words almost verbatim.  This isn't surprising since both men have had their public image carefully constructed by Chicago machine guru David Axelrod.

Obama is on record already saying that he should have given Patrick credit for using his words (thus admitting it was plagiarism, which is the un-sourced use of another's work, even if that use us authorized).

Oh Barack, we hardely know thee.

Why does this matter?

Two big reasons at least:

If we take Obama's meaning at face value, "just words" have a big meaning.  What you say matters.  In fact, based just on what you say (how about what you don't say?) you can judge a lot about a person and ascertain whether they are qualified to be president.

Second, it matters because Obama is supposed to be the avatar of "new politics."  Obama is supposed to be the 'as-clean-can-be' outsider who rises above the old tactics of pandering and leading but not doing.  His entire campaign is founded on the premise tha the is different, that he will change things, that he is better than this.

It begs the question (which I'm sure is being furiously explored), has this happened before?  How many liberties has Obama taken?

For a candidate who's campaign and 'movement' are founded on being an blast of new, inspirational leadership, what does it say that he plays fast and loose with where his words come from?  For that matter, it also begs the question, since Axelrod is so closely involved in both the Obama and Patrick operations, who is the real source of this inspiration?  Is Obama actually just as poll-tested and pre-packaged as he claims all others are?

Paging Joe Biden....Paging Joe Biden.....