NEW YORK (CBS)  -- THE BATTLE FOR INDIANA AND NORTH CAROLINA

Today's primaries in Indiana and North Carolina could go either way or both ways, says politico.com's senior reporter Ken Vogle.

"If we believe the polls, we're probably looking at a split where Hillary Clinton is going to take Indiana, Barack Obama is going to take North Carolina," he says.  

But neither Hilary Clinton nor Barack Obama seem brimming with confidence about today.

 SOT: Hillary Clinton, Democrat of New York

"I think we're making a lot of progress and many people are waiting to see what happens in the remaining contests which I think is a, you know,  smart idea," says Senator Clinton.

"There's no doubt that we have had a tough couple of weeks with the remarks of my former pastor and the wall-to-wall coverage on that. As a consequence, we weren't able to get out our message," says Senator Obama.

Neither Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama can get to be President until first getting to be the Democratic Party's nominee.  And they are squarely in each others way. They'd each love to be running against John McCain, better yet, against George W. Bush.

"The entire world is going to breathe a sigh of relief when that moving van pulls out from the back of the White House, taking him home to Texas," says Senator Clinton.

"I'm convinced that Democrats will be unifying because although George Bush and Dick Cheney won't be on the ballot, George Bush's policies will be on the ballot because John McCain has basically said he wants to continue four more years of George Bush's policies," says Senator Obama.

There are no other big states left on the primary calendar, so unless Obama sweeps today, according to Ken Vogle of Politico.com, the focus of the Democratic party pros, including Chairman Dean, is on the superdelegates.

"Howard Dean really wants these superdelegates to start showing their hands earlier. He is concerned, as are Democratic party insiders, that if this races really drags on, that the eventual winner is not going to have time to soothe the hurt feelings of supporters of the vanquished candidate in time to generate support and momentum going into the general election against John McCain," says Vogel.

BERNANKE'S FORECLOSURE WARNING

If the economy is stalled now it's because with home prices falling, banks are shying away from lending. Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac, two institutions created by Congress but owned by private investors, handled more than 80 percent of all mortgages bought by investors this year. 

They have an 83 billion dollar cushion. That’s a big cushion. But what it's cushioning is five trillion dollars worth of loans. What if a lot of those loans go bad?

Some say that would be unthinkable. That's why Freddie and Fannie should be unsinkable.

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke's speech at Columbia Business School yesterday wasn't available for mikes and cameras, but John Silvia, Chief economist at Wachovia, says Bernanke made an interesting point.

 "The impact on one homeowner was being felt, not because of what that particular homeowner was doing or in trouble with, but simply because his home price was going down," he says. 

 And therefore, Bernanke reasoned.

"The only way to address that is not through a one-on-one with each mortgage lender, but a more broad-based way, and try to help out, essentially, entire communities," says Silvia.

In other words, Bernanke was saying, the homeowner was caught in a squeeze.

"His argument was that not only did the lower price of the home suggest that someone had less ability to make their mortgage payments, but also, very importantly, an incentive to make these mortgage payments," says Silvia.

 And that, says Silva, is where the GSE's, government sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac, come in.

"It was kind of interesting that the fed chairman would put his backing behind two programs," says Silvia. "Calling upon Congress to pass legislation that would basically expand the ability of both institutions to help out with respect to the mortgage problem."

KEEPING BEES OFF THE JOB

Once upon a time the scent of a flower could waft through the wind a half a mile or more. A bee could be attracted to it from that great a distance. But now with air pollution, that scent might reach 600 feet if that. And this could be one explanation for the mysterious dying off of honeybee and bumblebee colonies that scientists call colony collapse disorder. 

"The situation with colony collapse disorder that is affecting bees in the United States is a complex problem," says John Burand, Associate Professor, University of Massachusetts in Amherst. "Poblems that we have with bees and with other organisms generally reflect what the quality of the air is, and they can be indicators that there could be a problem that might affect the rest of us as well."

John Burand of the University of Massachusetts in Amherst has made a study of the bizarre collapses of bee colonies.

"There's no doubt that the quality of our air, the pollutants in our air, have some impact on the way bees are behaving," he says. 

To the growers of flowering fruits and vegetables, bees are important.

"So if bees are having trouble doing their work, that's going to ultimately have an impact in the amount of particular crops we have and the quality of those fruits," he says.

The decline of bee populations also leads to a decline of the flowering plants. One thing leads to another.

"It's going to take some time in order for us to get the quality of our bees as important pollinators back to the level of health that we need for them to perform the duties that they do of pollinating crops," he says. 

 Bees may be like the roses in a vineyard, or the canary in the mine.

 "Bees in general could serve as a good indicator of what the quality of our environment is," says Burand.

SO YOU SAY YOU WANNA WORK FOR THE GOVERNMENT

This would be a week to thank all those employees at agencies of the federal, state and local government who've been hard at work trying to help you, or regulate you, in so many different ways throughout the year. This happens to be Public Service Recognition Week.

Have you ever thought of becoming a government worker?  If you can't lick 'em, join 'em as the saying goes. In connection with this the nonprofit Council for Excellence in Government is releasing a survey of young people, and about a third of them say they would give government service  serious consideration if anybody ever asked them, but that nobody except the armed services ever has.

When a new President in 1961 told young Americans to ask not what their country could do for them, rather to ask what they could do for their country, John F. Kennedy was not recruiting for federal workers. It was volunteers he was looking for, for the Peace Core, for Vista, and other efforts around the world and here at home. 

But the government right now is facing the demographic reality that a third of federal workers, most of them baby boomers, will be retiring over the next five years. A Gallup survey done a couple of years ago found that many young Americans don't think of government jobs as being innovative or creative, and figure that federal departments, bureaus, and agencies can't compete with the private sector in the kinds of work they have to offer or the kind of pay they're willing to pay.

In the new survey, though, 33 percent of the 18 to 29 year olds, millennials as they're called, are more responsive to interactive communications and personal attention than people realize.  And 33 percent of them say they would give serious consideration if their parents suggested it, 27 percent if a teacher did, and 29 percent if a newly elected President did. 

So President McCain, or President Obama, or President Clinton, whichever it turns out to be, might have an opportunity there.