In the latest Field Poll, Sen. Barack Obama is just two points behind Sen. Hillary Clinton in California. A couple of weeks ago, Clinton was leading by 12.  According to Mark DiCamillo, the Field Poll Director, "Women are in greater conflict than men. Women like Obama. I think in any other election they would be supporting him in a big way."
 
If you were watching C-SPAN in advance of the Super Bowl (wasn't everyone?), you heard Queen of all Media, Oprah Winfrey declare to a huge, enthusiastic audience in Los Angeles that women are free NOT to vote for a woman for president. Winfrey was on stage with JFK daughter Carolina Kennedy as Michelle Obama delivered a stirring speech on behalf of her husband without benefit of a single note.  

Afterwards, she introduced a "surprise" speaker, Maria Shriver, JFK's niece and the wife of the Republican Governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has endorsed John McCain.

The plot thickens.  Shriver's uncle, Senator Ted Kennedy, endorsed Obama at a huge rally at American University here in Washington last week. Her counsins Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, former Lt. Gov. of Maryland and Robert Kennedy, Jr. are backing Hillary, but they're not getting much play in the press.

According to the Field Poll, large numbers of California voters in both parties are having trouble making up their minds--18 percent of the Democrats, 15 percent of Republicans. 

It's not just in California. At dinner tables here in Washington D.C. and at other venues, I have heard women who had been leaning toward Clinton say they now feel themselves being pulled toward Obama.

And speaking of McCain, I have heard a number of Democrats say they would vote for him before they would vote for Hillary Clinton.  This is anecdotal, of course, but I suspect that these conversations are not unique to the nation's capital.

McCain, by the way, leads Romney by 8 percentage points in the latest Field Poll, doubling his number in two weeks. During the Republican debate at the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California last week, Mitt Romney tried to challenge the conservative credentials of a cranky John McCain by noting that the New York Times had endorsed him,
to which McCain replied, "Let me note that I was endorsed by your two hometown newspapers, who know you best, including the very conservative Boston Herald."

If Romney had been on his toes he might have responded,  "Yes, Senator, and the other paper that endorsed you is the very liberal Boston Globe which happens to be owned by the New York Times Company."

But it's not our job to write lines for these candidates.