“I think the president’s statement today is probably the most significant advancing of our cause since the bill-signing,” Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley told me during a meeting in Baltimore, two hours after President Obama announced his public support for same-sex marriage. A poll out just this morning quantifies how significant. If the vote to uphold Maryland’s marriage-equality law were held today, it would pass with 57 percent of the vote. Even more compelling, 55 percent of African Americans said same-sex marriages should have the same rights as other marriages.

Jackie Calmes of the New York Times tells the story today of my all-time favorite presidential photo. The first time I saw it was while walking through the West Wing to a meeting three years ago. A little black boy touching the head of President Obama. The image was so powerful I stopped in my tracks and inquired about the story behind the photo. As Calmes reports, Jacob Philadelphia had a question for the president of the United States.

WASHINGTON — In Democratic primary elections this week, voters in Arkansas, Kentucky and West Virginia swung their support behind the insurgent presidential candidacy of a pair of lawn shears.

The results are the most significant sign yet of President Obama’s lackluster support among rural voters, particularly in Appalachia.

The governors are in town for the annual meeting of the National Governors Association, and three of them visited The Post on Wednesday. There were two Democrats (Christine Gregoire of Washington and Jack Markell of Delaware) and one Republican (Dave Heineman of Nebraska), but they were fairly united in their views of Washington, D.C., dynamics.

A new Post-ABC News poll shows more evidence that President Obama’s announcement of support on May 9 for marriage equality may have had the power to change hearts and minds. Opposition to allowing same-sex couples to marry hit an all-time low while support is at a high.

If you ask Republican Senate candidates — or at least if you check their websites — it seems that it’s the latter: No one is denouncing Ryan, of course, but on the whole, he’s just not there. Perhaps Ryan doesn’t poll well. Perhaps it’s just that no one wants to be associated with anything in Congress, even a conservative hero.

Don’t be surprised that President Obama lost 40 percent of the vote in West Virginia to a convicted felon currently residing in a Texas prison. Or that he lost similar percentages of the vote last night in Arkansas and Kentucky. A map run by the New York Times in December 2008 pretty much predicted today’s events.

The political universe must be a little off-kilter. I have now seen three instances of folks who should know better or who are usually so supremely careful behaving badly. Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) chose the wrong word. Newark Mayor Cory Booker (D) is now seen as an Obama saboteur. And South Carolina AFL-CIO President Donna Dewitt was just plain dumb.

If you can think of a more perfect storm of Republican bogeymen, I’d be happy to hear it. But I doubt you can.

The massive protests over the weekend in Chicago during the NATO summit have folks wondering if that marked a resurgence of the Occupy Wall Street movement. But I have to tell you, if those demonstrations are any indicator, OWS is going nowhere fast.