Yesterday, seconds after I made a post predicting Sen. Hillary Clinton would win both the Texas and Ohio primaries, my phone started ringing.

It was a friend calling to remind me that Sen. Barack Obama was on a 12-state winning streak. I reminded her that Obama’s weak campaigning against Clinton had taken its toll and the momentum was swinging in Clinton’s direction.

Sen. Clinton has humiliated Obama with dirty campaign tricks for months now, from voter suppression tactics to accusing Obama of drug use – without barely a whimper from him.

The latest dirty trick to come out of Hillary’s camp is this ad attacking Obama for not holding any hearings on Afghanistan. In the ad, Obama appears 3 shades darker than his normal skin tone. So far, there’s been no response from Obama. When he does strike back at Clinton, it’s with kid gloves on.

Now he claims he’s ready to fight back.

While talking with reporters on his plane on his way from San Antonio to Chicago today, Obama hinted at taking a harder stance against Clinton in the coming weeks. This comes two days after he was practically mauled by the press corps in Texas on Monday. An AP reporter asked him whether an Obama aide had tipped off Canadians that his anti-NAFTA campaigning was just rhetoric aimed at winning votes.

Obama began to stutter, “Let me, let me, let me, let me just be absolutely clear what happened,” Obama answered, while reminding them that the press conference was a “courtesy” and not really official.

The press corps, like a pack of hungry wolfs, smelled blood and attacked. The exchange proved what some of us already know about Obama: when his back is against the wall, he is not prepared to fight.

Obama told the reporters on the plane he wanted them to ask Clinton more questions about her foreign experience. “I haven’t seen any evidence that she is more equipped to handle a crisis,” he said.

But on Monday, Obama proved he wasn’t equipped to even handle a question on the “NAFTA gate.” That one question from the AP reporter was like a right hook to the jaw that left Obama reeling and swinging at the air. He didn’t see it coming. He wasn’t prepared.

Do we really want Obama stuttering on the phone in the White House when that crucial call comes in at 3 AM?

War Czar: Mr President, we have detected 7000 weapons of mass destruction heading our way. What should we do?

Obama: Let me, let me, let me, let me discuss this with Michelle and I’ll get right back to you!

It seems Sen. Barack Obama forgot he was swimming among sharks while campaigning in San Antonio Texas last night.

Maybe Obama was lulled into complacency by the fact that he has so far been treated with kid gloves by the press corps. Obama let his guard down briefly during a press conference and the sharks attacked.

“I don’t have any preliminary statement,” said Obama, telling the reporters to “just dive in.” So that’s what they did. The first question left Obama stuttering:

Tom Raum of the Associated Press led off with a question about whether an Obama aide had told Canadians not to take seriously the candidate’s public rhetoric critical of the NAFTA trade agreement. “Let me, let me, let me, let me just be absolutely clear what happened,” Obama answered, reminding them that the meeting was a “courtesy” and involved no “winks and nods.”Then an agitator—columnist Carol Marin with the Chicago Sun-Times—broke in. Marin, a visitor to the Obama entourage who accused the regulars of being too “quiet,” accused the candidate of concealing details about fundraisers Rezko had for him and a real estate transaction between the two.

“I don’t think it’s fair to suggest somehow that we’ve been trying to hide the ball on this,” Obama answered. But this only provoked a noisy back-and-forth between Marin, Sun-Times colleague Lynn Sweet and Michael Flannery from Chicago’s CBS affiliate. “How many fundraisers?… Who was there?… Disclosure of the closing documents?” READ MORE…