Don’t look now, but Barack Obama is in trouble.

For a long time there, it seemed like the Illinois senator and his message of hope and change were a sure thing to take the Democratic presidential nomination.

There was just one problem. Nobody bothered to tell Sen. Hillary Clinton. She’s not going away. She continues to win the big states, and make a legitimate claim that she – not Obama – is best situated to tangle with Republican Sen. John McCain in November in the general election.

Now a new poll just might agree with her.

The poll shows Hillary with a 9-point lead over McCain in a head-to-head match. Clinton leads 50-41 percent. In the meantime, Obama is in what amounts to a dead heat with the presumed GOP standard-bearer. He holds a thin two-point margin, 46-44 percent.

The next two contests are in North Carolina and Indiana. Obama was expected to win both handily. Then his margin started to shrink. Now it’s believed he’s squeaking by in North Carolina while Indiana is a toss-up. North Carolina’s governor endorsed Clinton yesterday.

Obama clings to his lead in the popular vote and delegates, but his argument seems to ring a bit more hollow each day. He has not seemed his normal, confident self since his disastrous showing in the debate in Philly at the National Constitution Center.

Then there is the wild card in all this. We refer, of course, to the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Just when the brush fire from his controversial comments and sermons was dying down, Wright resurfaced this week, poured gasoline on the smoldering embers, and threw a match on a conflagration that Obama can’t escape.

For some reason, in two appearances this week Wright has decided to confront Obama. Why remains a mystery. Maybe he’s feeling scorned because of Obama’s speech on race and his move to distance himself from his former pastor.

The ties are severed now. Yesterday Obama firmly disavowed any ties to Wright.

Getting those thoughts out of the heads of voters won’t be as easy.

Can you say superdelegates?