A tough ad being aired in North Carolina by the state GOP attacks Democrats for allying themselves with Obama, who is attacked for his 20-year connection to Rev. Wright. It is the sort of ad widely expected to be aired if Obama becomes the Democratic nominee.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/jonathanmartin/0408/RNC_McCain_camp_urge_NC_GOP_to_not_air_Obama_ad.html

TV critic Jonathan Storm reports:

The wide margin made it a clean job for national coverage by the cable channels, which treated us to strong, unedited speeches from both candidates that soaked up time from speculation and blather.

Then it was time for (look out) the local news to take over.

"The groups [the Obama campaign] have to work on for the summer and fall are Catholics, women, elderly and those all-important all important white, blue-collar males," said 6ABC's Monica Malpass. Just this side of fiction, the statement completely ignored the reality that the only groups Obama really has to work to lock up the nomination are small claques of super-delegates. Viewer e-mail got a segment, too: a cheap and uninformative diversion in a limited-time newscast.

CBS3 gave lots of time to Clinton, and Gov. Rendell and Mayor Nutter, and then went far away with correspondent Jim Osman stationed in Evansville, Ind., to let Obama say a thing or two, too. That's admirable news coverage. The station's Chris May gave trenchant analysis of how Clinton won, including a strong margin among gun owners, "who, remarkably, made up 40 percent of the electorate."

Oh, and by the way: *The Flyers won in overtime!!!!!*

Inquirer TV critic Jonathan Storm reports:

10 p.m.

Whether it’s Rove or Russert or CNN’s John King, the strength of a single, informed voice overpowers the shouting of partisan opionaters, whose hot air rises into the atmosphere like a helium balloon, only to pop with no impact.

Here’s MSNBC’s Chuck Todd on the delegate race, after Clinton’s Pennsylvania primary win: For Obama to lose the race for pledged delegates requires “crazy numbers that are impossible in this proportional system. If we called things like this, you’d say the pledge delegate count is over."

And here’s Tim Russert to explain why the primary campaigns are not over. Michigan and Florida may provide no delegates, but they give Clinton a chance to win in total popular vote and a rationale to continue, even though popular vote, technically, counts not a whit in the nomination process. “Obama needs to win match point. He has to win both Indiana and North Carolina in two weeks, or it’s going to keep going, at least in the heart and mind of Hillary Clinton."

So the past six weeks in Pennsylvania doesn’t amount to a row of pins.

Daily News TV critic Ellen Gray reports: 

We may be old and gun-happy, but tonight on CNN, Pennsylvania's definitely a blue state.

Light blue for Hillary Clinton, darker blue for Barack Obama.

And with 6 percent of the votes in, CNN at 9:04 p.m. is ready to call the primary for Clinton.

Fox News has called the state of Pennsylvania for Hillary Clinton, even though they admit they have less than 1% of the vote in. UPDATE: Now NBC has also projected a Hillary win.

Neither network has projected a winning margin, which is where it gets interesting.

Inquirer TV critic Jonathan Storm reports:

8:45 p.m.

Just like the national nets, CN8 has its own panel of contentious cranks, two Democrats, two Republicans. They rant and rage and say little enlightening, but at least their families at home are enjoying the show.

And then local folks get to call in! Chablis from Philadelphia says she'll vote Democratic even if her candidate, Obama, loses.

"I love your name," host Lynn Doyle tells Chablis.

While waiting for results, Philly native Chris Matthews is already getting exercised over financial issues, and being mocked for it by Josh Marshall. That's New York resident Josh Marshall.

A slap at Chris is a slap at all of Southeastern PA!

Daily News TV critic Ellen Gray reports: 

This is why late results are bad: CNN panelists, with nothing to chew on, have gone back to shouting about whether Barack Obama's preacher is better or worse than John Hagee, the anti-Catholic minister who's endorsed the presumptive Republican nominee.