William F. Buckley Jr. Is Dead at 82  —  William F. Buckley Jr., who marshaled polysyllabic exuberance, famously arched eyebrows and a refined, perspicacious mind to elevate conservatism to the center of American political discourse, died Wednesday at his home in Stamford, Conn.

Rove: Don't “Hussein” Obama  —  No less an authority figure than Karl Rove has warned Republican operatives from demagoguing Barack Obama's middle name.  —  At a closed door meeting of GOP state executive directors in late January, Rove said the safest way to refer to Obama would be to use his honorific, “Sen. Obama.”

Lewis says he's supporting Obama  —  WASHINGTON — Hoping to put an end to a month of confusion and dismay, Rep. John Lewis on Wednesday said he's switching his support from Sen. Hillary Clinton to Sen. Barack Obama in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Obama also has news for McCain  —  Obama departed from his regular stump speech today in Columbus to respond to John McCain.  —  “John McCain may like to say he wants to follow Osama bin Laden to the gates of Hell, but so far all he's done is follow George Bush into a misguided war in Iraq,” he said.

24% Have Favorable Opinion of New York Times  —  Just 24% of American voters have a favorable opinion of the New York Times.  Forty-four percent (44%) have an unfavorable opinion and 31% are not sure.  The paper's ratings are much like a candidate's and divide sharply along partisan and ideological lines.

Micro Mark  —  Hillary Clinton's Svengali, Super Micro-Trend Pollster Mark Penn: ‘People Misunderstand,’ He Says Campaign ‘Never About the Small Things,’ And, ‘If We Lose, I Will Take My Share of the Responsibility’  —  ‘When you wake, you will have won!’  The Great  —  Penn-gali with Senator Hillary Clinton and

Automated killer robots ‘threat to humanity’: expert … Increasingly autonomous, gun-totting robots developed for warfare could easily fall into the hands of terrorists and may one day unleash a robot arms race, a top expert on artificial intelligence told AFP.

Obama, Farrakhan, and how Hillary Clinton took the opening and then squandered it.  —  What happened in the debate last night when Tim Russert confronted Barack Obama about Louis Farrakhan?  In real time, I thought that Obama failed to denounce Farrakhan and that Hillary Clinton caught it and confronted him.

Begrudging His Bedazzling  —  A huge Ellen suddenly materialized behind Hillary on a giant screen, interrupting her speech Monday night at a fund-raiser at George Washington University in Washington.  —  What better way for a desperate Hillary to try and stop her rival from running off …

WE ARE ALL INSIDERS NOW....Lee Gomes writes in the Wall Street Journal that the wide availability of insider political sites (The Note, The Page, First Read, etc.) has made us all into slaves of Beltway horserace analysis and MSM conventional wisdom.  Plus this: … Amen.

Expertinent: Why the Obama “Brand” Is Working  —  Logo at left; ‘Change We Can Believe In’ is written in Obama's signature ‘Gotham’ typeface.  —  Expertinent is a regular Stumper column featuring interviews with experts on the news of the day.  (For more on Obama's branding, check out this addendum.)

Richards' sons object to Clinton video  —  AUSTIN, Texas - The two sons of Ann Richards, the late former Texas governor, are objecting to an Internet video published by Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential campaign that suggests their mother would have supported Clinton.