“Why are the letters ‘NIG’ on the child's pajamas?”  —  Asks a commenter — “Tom” — on my post about the new Hillary Clinton commercial, the one that shows several children sleeping and then Clinton taking a national security phone call in the middle of the night.

Reuters/C-SPAN/Houston Chronicle Poll - Democrats Locked in Tight Races: Clinton Closes on Obama in Texas; Pair Deadlocked in Ohio  —  Republican John McCain retains wide leads in Ohio and Texas in advance of Tuesday's primaries  —  UTICA, New York - Democrat Hillary Clinton stemmed her losses …

Obama Calls for Help from NATO Allies in Afghanistan  —  US presidential candidate Barack Obama began sketching his position toward Europe on the campaign trail this week.  He said the US needs more support from its NATO allies in Afghanistan and implied Germany should lift its ban on combat operations in the dangerous south.

Ahmadinejad on historic Iraq trip  —  BAGHDAD - President Bush's last trip to Iraq was kept secret until he arrived at a U.S. military base.  Eight hours later he left, after Iraq's leaders traveled to meet him there.  —  In sharp contrast, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's visit …

Judge Reverses His Order Disabling Web Site  —  SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge on Friday withdrew his earlier order disabling a Web site that allows the anonymous posting of documents to discourage unethical behavior in governments and corporations.  —  On Feb. 15, the judge …

On the Press Bus, Some Questions Over Favoritism  —  On the bus ferrying a group of reporters to an appearance by Senator Barack Obama at Ohio State University on Wednesday, Lee Cowan, the NBC reporter assigned to the campaign, was asked the media question of the week: Had journalists …

Mondale's Red Phone Ad  —  Clinton always plagiarizes, doesn't she?

War is Good, Isn't It?  —  We have three wardogs in the race for the White House.  Obama — while supporting continued threats to the Middle East and military action in Sudan — seems the most peaceful in intent and current actions.  Hillary is both shrill and angry, and McCain is all that and more.

Rhetoric: High; Anxiety: Low  —  WASHINGTON — The warnings from President Bush and his senior aides have grown more urgent over the last few weeks, now that Congress has let a temporary wiretapping law expire.  But there is little sign of anxiety among many intelligence and phone industry officials.

Hedge Funds' Fire Sales Send Muni-Bond Yields To Historic High Levels  —  Months of turmoil in the municipal-bond market, long a placid haven for individual investors, reached a boiling point Friday — as hedge funds were forced to unwind complicated bets and in the process dump billions of dollars of the securities.

Clinton's mail  —  The late mail in Texas and Ohio is more or less the series of attacks we've seen, with some variation, since Iowa — attacks on Obama on policy issues like health care, credit cards and energy policy.  —  No scary new security mailings to accompany that new ad, at least not yet.

Potential Deal Could Assure Retroactive Immunity  —  This is from last night's Congress Daily PM dispatch by Chris Strohm and Christian Bourge: … This is not a good sign.  If Title I and Title II of the Senate-passed Intelligence Committee bill are voted on separately in the House …