After giving Hillary Clinton's campaign a much-needed psychological boost by satirizing Barack Obama's charismatic hold over the media, "Saturday Night Live" did it again last week -- essentially repeating a joke that was funny the first time around for a second week in a row.

So much for the show's ballyhooed return to relevance. Still, the "SNL" skits have managed to put journalists on the defensive, especially with Mrs. Clinton referring to the "bias" of journalists in every speech.

It just isn't cool to be seen as being in the tank with Obama anymore. Because this industry is rife with fake courage, every news organization will soon repent of ever going "easy" on him and will release the slavering dogs of investigative journalism into Obama's pristine backyard.

After all, no one has reported on the Tony Rezko affair or the fact that the Chicago slumlord's trial began yesterday. Right?

Nobody has heard a peep from the press about Obama's pastor, Jeremiah Wright, or his church's Afrocentric religious orientation. Obama goes to church? Gee, we thought he was a Muslim.

Media obviously looked the other way when Michelle Obama launched into an unpatriotic diatribe that indicated she wasn't as proud of America as she should be.

And what about Barack Obama's patriotism? Why is he allowed to stand with his arms to his side while everyone else puts their hand to their heart during the Pledge of Allegiance?

Who made a big deal out of the fact that Barack Obama is an alleged plagiarist? Maybe there was a story on NPR, but who listens to that commie-pinko network?

According to the Clinton campaign, when it comes to reporting unflattering stories about the man who will likely defeat her for the Democratic presidential nomination, the mainstream media has proven itself to be, at best, Barack Obama's sycophantic press agent.

Barack Obama gets bad press? Perish the thought. This perception alone disqualifies Hillary Clinton for the office of president of the United States.

Last year, when Barack Obama made stump speeches that were heavy on policy and light on poetry, he was knocked around by the media for abandoning the soaring rhetoric that got him to the ball in the first place.

Until recently, his political allies and opponents all agreed that deep down he was a policy wonk of the first order.

Sensing the importance of reclaiming the momentum that comes with inspiring people and generating votes, Obama has returned to the galvanizing rhetoric that put him on the map at the 2004 Democratic convention.

For being a smart campaigner, he is now knocked for being insubstantial and superficial by folks he could chew up and spit out before breakfast.

At this point, Barack Obama has no choice but to win the presidency so he can turn to the boring minutiae of governance to prove that wonkery and inspired leadership aren't mutually exclusive.

On Sunday evening, "60 Minutes" correspondent Steve Kroft interviewed several Democratic voters in southern Ohio about how they planned to vote in today's primary.

After tearing up and telling a moving story about losing his health care benefits, one Ohioan said he was inclined to vote for Obama -- but didn't agree with some of the candidate's positions.

Speaking with truly breathtaking ignorance, the man said that Obama's religion -- which he assumed was Muslim -- concerned him. He also repeated the scurrilous lie that Barack Obama, one of the most inspiring orators of his generation, didn't know the words to the National Anthem. Oh, and he was sworn into office using a Koran.

Left unexplained, of course, was why a voter with so many reservations would be tempted to vote for a candidate whose patriotism and religious fitness for duty he questioned. What was the attraction?

To his credit, Steve Kroft tried to set the voter straight, but it was probably a lost cause. By now, the myth of Obama's "plan" to usher in a new caliphate and hand the government over to terrorists is too deeply ingrained in American numbskullery to be easily rooted out.

That's why alone among the major presidential candidates, Sen. Barack Obama will probably have to resort to taking holy communion on national TV and reciting the Apostle's Creed before his next televised speech to "prove" he's a Christian.

And what can be more ironic than having one's faith questioned in a land where faith is cheap and scoundrels and scam artists routinely proclaim their allegiance to Christ from the rooftops?