NYT: Hillary pushing Wright scandal with superdelegates; Update: How'd the speech play in Pennsylvania?

Publicly, she’s letting the media carry the load. Privately, she’ll take it from here, thanks.

“Obama, confronted by an issue that was boiling, seemed to wade into it with a speech that was in many ways profound,” [Democratic consultant Ted] Devine said. “As a result, now these people who were so interested and awakened by his candidacy are back with him again. Instead of this being a setback, it becomes an opportunity.”

But the audience now is as much the Democratic superdelegates, who are especially attuned to politics and questions of electability in the fall, as it is rank-and-file voters.

Mrs. Clinton’s advisers said they had spent recent days making the case to wavering superdelegates that Mr. Obama’s association with Mr. Wright would doom their party in the general election.

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Follow the link for an interesting detail about Team Clinton’s worries over Pelosi or even the Goracle stepping in to swing the race to Obama. Is Devine right that the voters are “back with” Obama after the speech? Too soon to tell but a 44-37 Hillary lead in Pennsylvania is now a 51-35 lead. Are Hillary’s advisors right that Wright will doom him in the general? I’m still skeptical, but … dude. Note the Ohio numbers in particular. Think any superdels will be seeing that on their fax machines this morning? All signs point to yes!

As for those mysterious “controversial comments” of Wright’s that Obama now admits to having heard, it’s evidently … not what you think:

Update: Rasmussen says Obama’s numbers have stopped falling but haven’t bounced back. Meanwhile, Politico uses a bar in Pennsylvania as an informal focus group on the speech. Almost worthless given the sample, but not entirely:

Stephanie Gill, a bartender in a white working class neighborhood in this Rust Belt city, noticed the shift immediately.

A week ago, her customers at Rauchut’s Tavern in Tacony didn’t have much to say about Barack Obama. But when she returned to work Wednesday, a day after the Illinois senator attempted to quell the furor over his pastor’s racially incendiary remarks, the reaction inside the corner bar was raw and unapologetic.

“People are not happy with Obama,” Gill said. “It’s the race stuff.”…

And his speech Tuesday, although widely praised by the pundit caste and Obama supporters, has only seemed to widen the gulf with the Budweiser class here…

Glenn Peter, 54, a patron at Rauchut’s Tavern, said he heard finger pointing, not reconciliation. He took issue with Obama’s explanation that Wright’s observations of a racist America were reflecting the racial scars of his past…

Peter said he’s never voted for a Republican for president, but if Obama is the nominee, he will support Sen. John McCain…

Mitrea, the aesthetician on her cigarette break outside Beautyworx Salon and Day Spa in the Mayfair section of Philadelphia, said she watched the whole speech. And before the controversy over Wright’s sermons, Mitrea said she was 55 percent for Clinton, 45 percent for Obama.

“Now I am 100 percent for Clinton and zero percent for Obama,” Mitrea said.

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Update: A “superdelegate primary”?

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