Early Exit Poll Data in MD, VA  —  Highlights of preliminary exit poll data in the Maryland and Virginia presidential primaries Tuesday:  —  ___  —  CONSERVATIVES AND EVANGELICALS  —  Nearly seven in 10 voters in Virginia's Republican primary called themselves conservatives.

Inside the Clinton Shake-Up  —  Like so much involving Hillary Clinton, Sunday's departure of her campaign manager, Patti Solis Doyle, has gotten tons of attention, but its larger significance has been somewhat misunderstood.  I've spent a fair amount of time over the last two years reporting on …

Senate Passes Bill to Expand U.S. Spying Powers  —  WASHINGTON — After more than a year of heated political wrangling, the Senate handed the White House a major victory Tuesday by voting to broaden the government's spy powers after giving legal protection to phone companies that cooperated …

Gov. ‘Blunt Talk’ Rendell (and other topics)  —  So many topics, so little space:  —  Gov. Ed “Don't Call Me ‘Fast Eddie’ ” Rendell met with the editorial board of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette last week to talk about his latest budget.  But before turning the meeting over to his number-crunchers …

Obama Unplugged  —  Lost without a Teleprompter.  —  USUALLY WHEN BARACK OBAMA gives a major speech, the overdone hosannas from the liberal commentariat follow as surely as night follows day.  The American Prospect's Ezra Klein wrote of Obama's post-Iowa victory speech, “I've been blessed to hear many great orations.

William and Mary president resigns in disgrace  —  The head of the College of William and Mary, Gene Nichol, has resigned in disgrace.  Several readers send along his resignation letter.  You'll recall that he roiled the campus with his decision to hide the cross at the famous school chapel to make it “less faith-specific.”

Source: Hillary Adviser Harold Ickes Tells Surrogates To Refer To Super-Delegates As “Automatic Delegates”  —  In a sign that the spin war over the significance of super-delegates is underway in earnest, Harold Ickes told assorted Hillary supporters on a private conference call yesterday …

Dodd: It's up to The House  —  Speaking to a conference call of reporters this afternoon, Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) said that, reflecting on the string of defeats in the Senate today, he thought the House was the best hope for stripping retroactive immunity from the final surveillance bill.

Why I Voted for Obama  —  College Park Rally, originally uploaded by Barack Obama.  —  I grew up in the 1990s loathing Bill Clinton.  He and his wife represented everything that was bad about politics — from the corruption and lies they brought from Arkansas to the immoral and embarrassing behavior in the White House.

Women ‘falling for Obama’  —  College Park, Maryland - You can see it in their flushed-face smiles and hear it in their screams.  They say the phenomenon is difficult to describe, but once they experience it they tell their friends, sisters, mothers and daughters, and they come back for more if they can.

Scalia Defends Torture: It's ‘Absurd’ To Say The Gov't Can't ‘Smack’ A Suspect ‘In The Face’  —  Today in an interview with BBC Radio's Law in Action, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia defended torture, claiming that it is not necessarily barred by the Constitution: