Top Items:
Frank Newport / Gallup:
If McCain vs. Obama, 28% of Clinton Backers Go for McCain — If McCain vs. Clinton, 19% of Obama backers go for McCain — PRINCETON, NJ — A sizable proportion of Democrats would vote for John McCain next November if he is matched against the candidate they do not support for the Democratic nomination.
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Maureen Dowd / New York Times:
Hillary or Nobody? — While the cool cat's away, the Hillary mice will play. — As Barack Obama was floating in the pool with his daughters the last few days in St. Thomas, some Clinton disciples were floating the idea of St. Hillary as his vice president.
Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:
YA THINK? — As you know, earlier today Hillary Clinton tried to stoke the Jeremiah Wright controversy by telling an editorial board meeting in Pittsburgh that Jeremiah Wright “would not have been my pastor” and then going on to note that she had denounced Don Imus in contrast to Obama's allegedly …
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Byron York / The Corner:
Hell Has Officially Frozen Over — It caught my eye as a flash on Brit Hume a few moments ago, but here is a photo from Hillary Clinton's visit today to the editorial board of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. In this picture, she is seen talking to none other than Richard Mellon Scaife …
Noam Scheiber / The New Republic:
Time to Lose McPeak — I tell pretty much anyone who asks these days that we're in the phase of the campaign I don't find especially interesting. Here, for example, are some things that got a lot of play recently which I don't care much about (and which I don't think have substantive implications …
Ezra Klein / American Prospect:
IT'S NOT ABOUT POINTS. — James Fallows is a bit agog that the Clinton team would disseminate articles from The American Spectator — the same Spectator that spent the 90s conducting a fact-free witch hunt against the Clintons — to harm Obama. In contrast, I'm much more surprised to see Clinton make a frontal attack on Wright.
Discussion:
TPM Election Central
New York Times:
Iraqi Crackdown on Shiite Forces Sets Off Fighting — BAGHDAD — Heavy fighting broke out Tuesday in two of Iraq's largest cities, as Iraqi ground forces and helicopters mounted a huge operation to break the grip of the Shiite militias controlling Basra, and Iraqi forces clashed with militias in Baghdad.
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Spencer Ackerman / The Washington Independent:
Maliki, Sadr, and the Wages of Sin — Iraqi PM Nouri al-Maliki is giving powerful Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr's forces three days to surrender in Basra, as clashes between Maliki's security forces and Sadr's Mahdi Army—in which the U.S. intervenes on Maliki's side—escalate.
Qassim Abdul-Zahra / Associated Press:Iraqi PM gives Basra gunmen ultimatum
Discussion:
American Footprints, Informed Comment, Time, All Spin Zone, missing links, Sweetness & Light and Abu Aardvark
Neal Gabler / New York Times:
The Maverick and the Media — Amagansett, N.Y. — IT is certainly no secret that Senator John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, is a darling of the news media. Reporters routinely attach “maverick,” “straight talker” and “patriot” to him like Homeric epithets.
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Brianinmo / BLOGS FOR JOHN McCAIN:
McCain Asks When Hillary Clinton Will Apologize to Gen. Petraeus - Video — Here is Sen. John McCain on March 24, 2008 asking when Sen. Hillary Clinton will apologize to Gen. David Petraeus for her remarks last year ridiculing the idea that “The Surge” strategy in Iraq was working.
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Glenn Greenwald / Salon:
What can and cannot be spoken on television — I'm going to re-post the segment I posted yesterday, from Charlie Rose's fifth anniversary Iraq show, because I want to encourage as many people as possible to watch it. If I could recommend one article or segment for Americans to read …
The Politico:
Southern Dem warns party to avert disaster — Democrats are increasingly nervous about their party's protracted nomination fight, and some prominent figures are publicly warning that the party needs to act fast to avoid disaster. — Chief among these voices is Phil Bredesen …
Discussion:
TownHall Blog, Philly.com, The Moderate Voice, MSNBC, Pennsyltucky Politics, TPM Election Central and Political Punch
Mark Halperin / Time:
Exclusive: Clinton Vows to Push On — Hillary Clinton is under a lot of pressure these days, but in a Tuesday interview she seemed cheery, confident and unapologetic as she talked about her determination to fight on in the Presidential race. Speaking by phone from Pennsylvania …
Discussion:
Trailhead, Dick Polman's American Debate, TPM Election Central, Jules Crittenden and The Page
Matt Welch / New York Times:
John McCain Wants You — BEHIND any successful politician lies a usable contradiction, and John McCain's is this: We love him (and occasionally hate him) for his stubborn individualism, yet his politics are best understood as a decade-long attack on the individual.
Michael Ledeen / The Corner:
Heroes Of Our Day. Of Our Time, Really — Today is National Medal of Honor Day. In a letter to his local newspaper, Medal of Honor holder Michael Thornton reminds us of the qualities of such men: … Every one of these men is amazing, and we spend too little time thinking about their stories …
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