Chicago Daily Observer

To listen to Democrats, Congress can’t wait to crack down on all those greedy “speculators” who are driving up the price of oil. To listen to one Democrat in particular, Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, is far more illuminating.

If the powerful majority whip is looking a little thin these days, it’s because he has been feeling the squeeze.

On his left is his party, wild to find a villain on whom to blame high gas prices, intent on deflecting attention away from its own antidrilling policies. It has settled on those unfortunate traders who deal daily in contracts for the world’s short supply of oil.

Too soft to withstand a Republican assault. Too vague to know how he’d govern. Those two big raps on Barack Obama can now be shelved. The Illinois senator this week provided his first, highly illuminating, example of how he’d operate in the Oval Office. It’s clear he’s as crafty as Hillary Clinton.

This case study has to do with that great love of good-government types, campaign finance. Last year, Mr. Obama sparked his campaign by pressuring Republicans to join him in a pledge to use only public money in a general election. Last week, when rival and fellow pledge-taker John McCain reminded him of that promise, Mr. Obama refused to go “locking” himself into an agreement.

This “No, We Can’t” moment