In the wake of Democratic Rep. Dan Boren’s (D) refusal to endorse Barack Obama, Arkansas News columnist John Brummett suspects that the Oklahoma congressman’s uneasiness with Obama extends across the border:

“Obama can’t compete in Arkansas without Hillary as his running mate. Obama is going to get pummeled in Oklahoma either way because Oklahoma is Arkansas without those enlightened (or static, if you prefer) Democratic influences. The point is that, for all the talk of a new day and of a race that is the Democrats to lose, the Democrats find themselves in old and familiar territory. That is to say they have a nominee whose competitiveness seems foreclosed in large sections of the country, primarily ours.”