Clinton Campaign Starts 5-Point Attack on Obama  —  After struggling for months to dent Senator Barack Obama's candidacy, the campaign of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton is now unleashing what one Clinton aide called a “kitchen sink” fusillade against Mr. Obama, pursuing five lines …

CBS Poll: Obama Surges Ahead Nationally  —  CBS News/NY Times Survey Finds Obama Opens Up 16-Point Lead; Also Leads In Head-To-Head Match Up With McCain  —  (CBS) A new CBS News/New York Times poll finds Barack Obama with a 16-point lead over rival Hillary Clinton among Democratic primary voters nationwide.

Ding Dong!  The Witch Is Dead!  —  From the DoD, via TPMMuckraker: … Pardon me while I dance about my study, cackling with glee.  That's some of the best news I've had since, well, since the announcement of the ceasefire in Northern Uganda.  (Hard to top that.)

The Real McCain  —  You wouldn't know it to look at them, but political consultants are as faddish as anyone else.  And the current vogueish advice among the backroom set is: Go after your opponent's strengths.  So in the first volley of what feels like the general election campaign …

Mansion ‘mistake’ piles the pressure on Barack Obama  —  James Bone in New York and Dominic Kennedy in London  —  A British-Iraqi billionaire lent millions of dollars to Barack Obama's fundraiser just weeks before an imprudent land deal that has returned to haunt the presidential contender, an investigation by The Times discloses.

Bill Slips While Stumping for Hillary?  ‘If You Elect Me...’  —  Was he speaking “as” his wife or was it a slip? (see related link) “If you elect me, I'll repeal those subsidies and put them into a strategic energy fund that will create American jobs for America's future with clean energy.”

Obama responds to CNN's smear: Join In against ‘right wing hack attacks’  —  Obama responds to the new smear campaign against him quite deftly.  CNN and the AP should be ashamed of themselves.  I didn't know lapel pins were so important to national security.

Jackboots and Whole Foods  —  Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left from Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning  —  In graduate school I had a professor, a famous Marxist, who devoted a significant portion of a lecture to the subject of artifacts.

Anti-war Democrats ponder next step  —  WASHINGTON - Democrats facing rejection of a proposal to cut off money for the Iraq war are deliberating their next step in trying to rebuild anti-war momentum.  —  In recent months, violence in Iraq has declined and the Baghdad government …