The links between food and fuel are growing tighter. How can that be anything but terrible, especially at a moment when much of the world is faced with shortages of both?

Across the country, ethanol plants are swallowing more and more of the nation’s corn crop. This year, about a quarter of U.S. corn will go to feeding ethanol plants instead of poultry or livestock. That has helped farmers like Johnson, but it has boosted demand — and prices — for corn at the same time global grain demand is growing.

And it has linked food and fuel prices just as oil is rising to new records, pulling up the price of anything that can be poured into a gasoline tank. “The price of grain is now directly tied to the price of oil,” says Lester Brown, president of Earth Policy Institute, a Washington research group. “We used to have a grain economy and a fuel economy. But now they’re beginning to fuse.”

McCain is pushing the idea that Hamas wants Obama to win.

Did the smears by the Bush campaign in 2000 make him determined to run a more noble campaign or just teach him the tricks of the trade?

The media loves Obama. Plenty of very smart people have said that Obama is the most exciting political voice in a generation. In the past two weeks, Hillary’s negatives have gone way up. Bill has been wildly ineffective. There is (or was) an extreme perception that this thing is over and Clinton should just end the pain. Even the best math minds in the country are having a hard time figuring out how Hillary pieces together a nomination. The Clinton campaign is generally viewed as being terrible and its upheavals have only worsened lately. Obama has all the dough and is outspending Clinton by at least three to one.

And still, Hillary is winning big in big states.

Something is going on. Could be race. Could be an inability by Obama to connect with certain voters. Could be a lot of things.

But with a Republican opponent whose brand is all about being an independent maverick, it really couldn’t be much worse.

I don’t pretend to know much about alternative fuels. I just drive my hyrbrid (peer pressure, not knowledge) and keep my mouth shut.

But what I hear about ethanol worries me.

Think of the damage to life, limb and property that has been done in the name of oil. Does it really make sense to pit the ever growing demand for fuel against the ever growing demand for food?

I know not all ethanol will come from edible sources, etc. But in the meantime, really, could there be a worse idea?

Anyone want to wager who – between the hungry for money and the just plain hungry – gets the corn if it becomes a major source of high priced fuel?

Turns out Barack can handle a few gaffes and attacks (or that Hillary’s attacks are just too phony and filled with hunting stories and whiskey guzzling). It could also be that the national media thinks we care about stuff we don’t care about. Either way, Zogby has Obama gaining ground just when he seems to be performing the poorest.

That said (and who knows how accurate these polls are at this point, especially Zogby), Obama really needs to improve on his debating skills. A couple of Red Bulls wouldn’t be a bad place to start.

Update: Gallop tells a different story.