Right slams Obama as ‘shady Chicago socialist’  —  Republicans are out to crush Barack by painting him as a leftwinger with dubious support  —  LEADING Republicans believe they can trounce Barack Obama in the presidential election by tarring him as a shady Chicago socialist.

Gallup Daily: Tracking Election 2008  —  Based on polling conducted Feb. 13-15, 2008  —  PRINCETON, NJ — For several days, nationwide Democratic voters' preferences have been shifting toward Barack Obama in Gallup Poll Daily election tracking.  Now, the Illinois senator enjoys …

Israel kills terror chief with headrest bomb  —  Uzi Mahnaimi in Tel Aviv, Hala Jaber in Beirut and Jon Swain  —  NOTHING seemed very remarkable about the short, bearded man who mingled with other guests on Tuesday evening at a reception in Damascus, the Syrian capital …

Old Clinton Ties and Voters' Sway Tug at Delegates  —  WASHINGTON — The dwindling group of elected officials and party leaders publicly undecided in the Democratic presidential contest — about 300 out of the 795 so-called superdelegates who may determine the party's nominee …

NY Times on “The Cult of Personality”  —  The Times constrasts “the cult of personality” with charisma.  It's a long article.  Here are the quotes I took from it:  —  I'll give the first round to the challenger, Barack Obama: … Next round goes to Sean Willnetz, a Princeton Historian and friend of Hillary's, who says:

Al Gore to the Rescue?  —  Stumper's Take: He foresaw global warming.  He “took the initiative” on the Internet.  And he knew exactly how Iraq would turn out.  Who's to say that Al Gore hasn't known all along that the Democratic race would descend into some weird state of gridlock …

Suicide bomber kills 80 in Afghanistan  —  KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - A suicide bombing at an outdoor dog fighting competition killed 80 people and wounded scores more Sunday, a governor said, in what appeared to be the deadliest terror attack in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban in 2001.

A Smiling, Fidgeting McCain, Learning to Rein Himself In  —  WASHINGTON — So this is what it looks like when the maverick becomes The Man.  —  Senator John McCain was sitting in the front of his fancy-pants front-runner's plane, trying to get comfortable.

Clinton backers fault campaign  —  Supporters outline errors as focus turns to big states  —  It may be hard to recall the shield of inevitability that once surrounded Hillary Clinton, but a December 2007 cover story in a liberal magazine is a reminder.  —  “Has Hillary Locked It Up?” …

It's an Election, Not a Revolution  —  IT has become common wisdom that the battle for the presidency is all about the economy.  Voters are being told that the country's economic health depends on pulling the right lever in the polling booth.  —  This election is certainly important.

Western Greenland Ice Growing; Still Global Warming  —  The lynchpin in the anthropogenic global warming theory is the shrinking Arctic ice, but now that some of that ice is actually increasing, scientists claim, without a trace of irony, it is normal for temperatures and ice sheets to fluctuate.

Change and Barack, America's First Leftist President?  —  The provocative claim of this piece from Mexico's La Jornada is that Barack would be the U.S.' first true leftist president - a conclusion drawn after broad (and generous) surveys of both Democratic candidates' strengths and qualifications.