Top Items:
Domenico Montanaro / MSNBC:
New NBC-WSJ poll — From NBC's Chuck Todd — As expected, one of the two major Democratic candidates saw a downturn in the latest NBC/WSJ poll, but it's not the candidate that you think. Hillary Clinton is sporting the lowest personal ratings of the campaign.
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Jackie Calmes / Wall Street Journal:
Pastor Flap Hasn't Hurt Obama — WASHINGTON — The racially charged debate over Barack Obama's relationship with his longtime pastor hasn't much changed his close contest against Hillary Clinton, or hurt him against Republican nominee-in-waiting John McCain, according to a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll.
Discussion:
The Carpetbagger Report, Hot Air, Pollster.com, Talking Points Memo, Examining Presidential …, Donklephant and Poll Dancing
Fox News:
Clinton Insists Dems Race Is a ‘Long Way’ From Over, Looks Toward Convention — The Democratic race is a “long way from being over,” Hillary Clinton told FOX News on Wednesday, and she has no qualms about taking the primary fight all the way to the convention floor.
Matt Apuzzo / Associated Press:
US: Saddam Paid for Lawmakers' Iraq Trip — Saddam Hussein's intelligence agency secretly financed a trip to Iraq for three U.S. lawmakers during the run-up to the U.S.-led invasion, federal prosecutors said Wednesday. — An indictment unsealed in Detroit accuses Muthanna Al-Hanooti …
Discussion:
The Swamp, On Deadline, Capitol Briefing, The Strata-Sphere, Gateway Pundit, PoliGazette, Atlas Shrugs and Attytood
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Michelle Malkin:
We don't call him “Baghdad Jim” for nothing; Plus: Another treacherous CAIR official
We don't call him “Baghdad Jim” for nothing; Plus: Another treacherous CAIR official
Greg Sargent / TPM Election Central:
In Letter, Top Clinton Donors Chastise Pelosi For Statements About Super-Delegates — Twenty top Hillary fundraisers and donors have sent a scathing private letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, chastising her for publicly saying that the super-delegates should support the winner …
Discussion:
Political Punch, AMERICAblog, Washington Wire, Redstate, the talking dog, Wizbang, Scripting News, BuzzMachine, Political Machine, Buck Naked Politics, American Street, Wake up America, Marc Ambinder, The New Republic, Spin Cycle, Hot Air, The Page, protein wisdom, American Spectator, Balloon Juice, Matthew Yglesias and ArchPundit
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Domenico Montanaro / MSNBC:
CLINTON TACTICS TURN OFF SOME SUPERDELEGATES — From NBC/NJ's Matthew E. Berger — At a time when Sen. Hillary Clinton is increasingly relying on superdelegates to vault her to the Democratic Party's nomination, a handful of undecided and pledged superdelegates are coming forward …
The Politico:
Welcome to the age of the sound blast — If 1960 was the year that TV displaced radio as the main platform for political persuasion, then the 2008 primary fight between Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton may go down in history as the moment when the Internet ended the dominance of television.
Discussion:
The Other McCain
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Brian Stelter / New York Times:
Finding Political News Online, the Young Pass It On — Senator Barack Obama's videotaped response to President Bush's final State of the Union address — almost five minutes of Mr. Obama talking directly to the camera — elicited little attention from newspaper and television reporters in January.
Discussion:
The Huffington Post
Jules Crittenden:
Blackwater Fever — It's new, it's so bad they named it after the hated American mercenaries, because it kills the innocent just like they do. Slamming Blackwater is always fun and really adds some zing to this story suggesting that an Iraqi malaria epidemic is being kept secret.
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Agence France Presse:
Pentagon says new Iraq fighting arises from surge's success — WASHINGTON (AFP) — The Pentagon on Wednesday said an eruption of violence in southern Iraq, where US-backed government forces were battling Shiite militias, was a “by-product of the success of the surge.”
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Jeffrey M. Jones / Gallup:
Public Believes Americans Have Right to Own Guns — Nearly three in four say Second Amendment guarantees this right — PRINCETON, NJ — A solid majority of the U.S. public, 73%, believes the Second Amendment to the Constitution guarantees the rights of Americans to own guns.
Discussion:
Convictions
Martin Peretz / The New Republic:
Standing By His Man — Why Obama was right in not repudiating his pastor. — The power of the preacher is an unmeasured force in American life. Of course, now that it has become an issue in a political campaign, we are focusing on the one minister and the one candidate whose lives …
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Washington Post:
Further Debunking the ‘War Zone’ Myth — The Clinton campaign has cited newspaper accounts, including one in The Washington Post, to bolster the senator's claim that her now-famous March 1996 trip to Bosnia was the first visit to a “war zone” by a first lady since World War II.
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This Is London:
MARRIAGE HITS LOWEST RATE SINCE RECORDS BEGAN ALMOST 150 YEARS AGO — The number of Britons tying the knot has collapsed to a record low, it has emerged. — The proportion of men and women getting married is below any level found since figures were first kept nearly 150 years ago.
Duncan Currie / Weekly Standard:
Family Ties — Any serious discussion of race must address out-of-wedlock births. — SAY THIS FOR Barack Obama's big speech: It is still being analyzed this week, and it will be analyzed more in the weeks and months ahead. Senator Obama went beyond the controversy over his former pastor …
Discussion:
RIGHTWINGSPARKLE
C. J. Chivers / New York Times:
Supplier Under Scrutiny on Aging Arms for Afghans — Since 2006, when the insurgency in Afghanistan sharply intensified, the Afghan government has been dependent on American logistics and military support in the war against Al Qaeda and the Taliban. — But to arm the Afghan forces …