The Testing Of Obama  —  Today will be a crucial day.  It will be a day when we will discover if America's racial environment - and the emotions and feelings and anger and fears that it entails - can allow for a black man - with all that entails - to become president.

Gov. Paterson admits to sex with other woman for years  —  The thunderous applause was still ringing in his ears when the state's new governor, David Paterson, told the Daily News that he and his wife had extramarital affairs.  —  In a stunning revelation, both Paterson, 53, and his wife …

The Street on Welfare  —  Never do I want to hear again from my conservative friends about how brilliant capitalists are, how much they deserve their seven-figure salaries and how government should keep its hands off the private economy.  —  The Wall Street titans have turned into a bunch of welfare clients.

Gun-Rights Showdown  —  Today, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the case of Heller v. District of Columbia, a suit brought by several D.C. citizens contending that the ban on the possession of operable firearms inside one's home violates the Second Amendment.

Bill Clinton rejects criticism over race  —  NEW YORK - Former President Clinton on Monday called the notion that he unfairly criticized his wife's rival, Barack Obama, “a total myth and a mugging.”  Clinton had compared Obama's landslide victory in South Carolina's Jan. 26 primary to Jesse Jackson's wins in the state in 1984 and 1988.

Obama camp: HRC is taking the low road  —  Is it possible to win the Democratic nomination in such a way as to make winning not worth it?  —  The Barack Obama campaign thinks so.  It thinks Hillary Clinton's campaign is willing to take any road to the White House, including the low road.

McCain's 67% Favorable Rating His Highest in Eight Years  —  Obama has a 62% favorable rating, while Clinton's is 53%  —  PRINCETON, NJ — John McCain's 67% favorable rating is the highest of any of the three major candidates running for president, and ties for his highest in Gallup polling history.

Florida Democrats Won't Vote Again, Official Says  —  WASHINGTON — The Florida Democratic Party chairwoman on Monday officially buried the possibility of redoing the state's disputed January presidential primary, saying there was no practical or affordable way to conduct a new election.

OBAMA SPEECH IN FULL: A MORE PERFECT UNION  —  “We the people, in order to form a more perfect union.”  —  Two hundred and twenty one years ago, in a hall that still stands across the street, a group of men gathered and, with these simple words, launched America's improbable experiment in democracy.

Iraq reconciliation meeting off to shaky start  —  BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A conference to reconcile Iraq's warring political groups began to unravel even before it got under way on Tuesday, with the main Sunni Muslim Arab bloc pulling out and protesting it had not been properly invited.

U.S. Adapts Cold-War Idea to Fight Terrorists  —  WASHINGTON — In the days immediately after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, members of President Bush's war cabinet declared that it would be impossible to deter the most fervent extremists from carrying out even more deadly terrorist missions with biological, chemical or nuclear weapons.