Top Items:
Thomas Fitzgerald / Philly.com:
Bob Casey to endorse Obama, join bus tour — Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey plans to endorse Sen. Barack Obama for president today in Pittsburgh, sending a message both to the state's primary voters and to undecided superdelegates who might decide the close race for the Democratic presidential nomination.
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Mike Allen / Ben Smith's Blogs:
BREAKING: Dean wants closure by July 1 — A potential game-changer from CBS News and “The Early Show.” Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean says he wants superdelegates to make a decision by JULY 1 — the most specific he has been in his effort to prod the party …
Carrie Budoff Brown / The Politico:
Pennsylvania voters feeling ‘neglected’ — PITTSBURGH - After envisioning Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama stumping from one end of the state to the other, dipping into diners and delis, all but taking up residence here in the run-up to the state's critical April 22 primary …
Discussion:
The Page
Katharine Q. Seelye / New York Times:
Obama to Begin Push in Pennsylvania in Hope of Offsetting Clinton Advantages
Obama to Begin Push in Pennsylvania in Hope of Offsetting Clinton Advantages
James Hider / Times of London:
Iraqi police in Basra shed their uniforms, kept their rifles and switched sides — Abu Iman barely flinched when the Iraqi Government ordered his unit of special police to move against al-Mahdi Army fighters in Basra. — His response, while swift, was not what British and US military trainers …
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Fred Kaplan / Slate:
Warlord vs. Warlord — WHAT ARE THEY FIGHTING ABOUT IN BASRA? — The wars in Iraq (the plural is no typo) are about to expand and possibly explode, so it might be useful to have some notion of what we're in for. — Here is President George W. Bush, speaking this morning in Dayton …
Discussion:
Swampland, Talking Points Memo, Outside The Beltway, In Depth with The Post … and White House
Washington Post:
U.S. Armor Forces Join Offensive In Baghdad Against Sadr Militia — Americans Appear To Take the Lead As Iraqi Units Wait — U.S. forces in armored vehicles battled Mahdi Army fighters Thursday in Sadr City, the vast Shiite stronghold in eastern Baghdad, as an offensive to quell party-backed militias entered its third day.
Kevin Drum / Washington Monthly:
WHO'S WHO....Can't tell the players without a program in the 2-way …
WHO'S WHO....Can't tell the players without a program in the 2-way …
Discussion:
Hullabaloo
Mike Allen / Ben Smith's Blogs:
Obama now says he might have left church — In appearance taped for airing this morning on “The View,” Senator Obama makes news by saying he might have left Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ if the Rev. Jeremiah Wright had not retired. — In a clip posted by ABC, Obama says …
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Associated Press:
Obama would have left if Wright stayed — WASHINGTON - White House hopeful Barack Obama suggests he would have left his Chicago church had his longtime pastor, whose fiery anti-American comments about U.S. foreign policy and race relations threatened Obama's campaign, not stepped down.
Discussion:
Confederate Yankee, Right Wing Nut House, MyDD, Don Surber, Taylor Marsh, Redstate, Daimnation!, Sweetness & Light and Cliff Schecter.com
Paul Krugman / New York Times:
Loans and Leadership — When George W. Bush first ran for the White House, political reporters assured us that he came across as a reasonable, moderate guy. — Yet those of us who looked at his policy proposals — big tax cuts for the rich and Social Security privatization — had a very different impression.
Steven Emerson / Articles by the Investigative Project …:
Exclusive Photos Show Al-Hanooti's Political Clout — Before he was alleged to have become a spy for Saddam Hussein's regime, Muthanna Al-Hanooti's charity work and political activism provided him with access to the highest echelons of government. — Newsletters collected by the Investigative Project …
Discussion:
The Corner, Little Green Footballs, On Deadline, Israpundit, Counterterrorism Blog and Detroit Free Press
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Tahman Bradley / Political Radar:
Bill Clinton: Caucuses ‘Killing Us’ — ABC News' Teddy Davis, Sarah Amos, and Talal Al-Khatib Report: While speaking by phone Thursday to his wife's Texas supporters, former President Bill Clinton downplayed the importance of caucuses and argued that his wife, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y. …
Portfolio:
Fee for All — Edgar Bronfman Jr.'s Warner Music Group has tapped industry veteran Jim Griffin to spearhead a controversial plan to bundle a monthly fee into consumers' internet-service bills for unlimited access to music. — The plan—the boldest move yet to keep the wounded entertainment …
Slate:
The Hillary Deathwatch — GAUGING THE ODDS THAT CLINTON WILL WIN THE NOMINATION. — Hillary Clinton is as good as dead. This became the consensus over the past week, when the media awoke en masse to the dual reality that 1) Clinton can't close the pledged-delegate gap and 2) Obama has her beat in the popular vote.
Discussion:
The Moderate Voice, The Reaction, Brendan Nyhan, Patterico's Pontifications, Spin Cycle and The New Republic