memeorandum: Gore thinks Dem nomination will be set before convention (Erik Schelzig/Associated Press)

11:25 AM ET, March 28, 2008

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.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Washington Wire, The Swamp, Marc Ambinder, Ben Smith's Blogs, Wonkette, Booman Tribune, Dick Polman's American Debate, Comments from Left Field, Talking Points Memo, The Caucus, Pennsyltucky Politics, Washington Times, Donklephant, The Page, TPM Election Central, Balloon Juice and positivelyBarack.com

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 …

Discussion: The Swamp, Reuters, The New Republic and Pam's House Blend

Erik Schelzig / Associated Press:

Gore thinks Dem nomination will be set before convention — MURFREESBORO - Former Vice President Al Gore said Thursday that he expects the Democratic nomination fight will “resolve itself” before the party's convention in late August. — Gore told The Associated Press that he sees no urgency in endorsing a presidential candidate.

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 and PSoTD

Nedra Pickler / Associated Press:
Dean: Bickering Democrats May Hurt Party

Discussion: Daily Kos

Katharine Q. Seelye / New York Times:
Obama to Begin Push in Pennsylvania in Hope of Offsetting Clinton Advantages

Discussion: Associated Press and The Page

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 …

Discussion: Angry Bear, Balloon Juice, The Carpetbagger Report, Washington Monthly, The Newshoggers, Outside The Beltway, Jules Crittenden, Washington Post, Time, American Street, Last of the Few and Middle Earth Journal

Erica Goode / New York Times:
U.S. Planes Attack Militia Strongholds in Basra Fighting

Discussion: Matthew Yglesias and TownHall Blog

Washington Post:
U.S. Armor Forces Join Offensive In Baghdad Against Sadr Militia

Fred Kaplan / Slate:
Warlord vs. Warlord — WHAT ARE THEY FIGHTING ABOUT IN BASRA?

Discussion: Swampland, Talking Points Memo, Outside The Beltway and In Depth with The Post …

David Brooks / New York Times:

Tested Over Time — Barack Obama says: “John McCain is determined to carry out four more years of George Bush's failed policies.” Obama is a politician, so it's normal that he'd choose to repeat the lines that some of his followers want to hear. But before people buy that argument, I'd ask them to read three speeches.

Discussion: Salon, Washington Wire, Political Machine, Investor's Business Daily and Prometheus 6

Frank James / The Swamp:
McCain targets Obama in new general-election ad

Discussion: Jonathan Martin's Blogs

Mike Allen / Ben Smith's Blogs:
McCain to announce first general-election ad

Discussion: Hot Air

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 …

Discussion: The Swamp, The Strata-Sphere, Spin Cycle and The Trail

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: protein wisdom, Confederate Yankee, JustOneMinute, ABCNEWS, Hot Air, Right Wing Nut House, MyDD, Taylor Marsh, Don Surber, Gateway Pundit, The Caucus, Redstate, Daimnation!, Sweetness & Light and Cliff Schecter.com

Daniel / Crooked Timber:

Bad news from Basra — My assessment of the battle for Basra has changed significantly. I still think that, in the subjunctive conditional tense, it was a reasonable piece of analysis - al-Maliki needed to do something[1] to start to establish his monopoly on violence within Iraq …

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, swissinfo and The Newshoggers

CBS News:
U.S. Warplanes Bomb Militias In Basra

Discussion: Blue Girl, Red State and Crooks and Liars

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.

Discussion: Firedoglake, The Trail and Corrente

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. …

Discussion: Oliver Willis, American Street, Political Punch, The Reaction and Donklephant

New York Sun:

Attorney General Gets Emotional In Calling for Surveillance Power — SAN FRANCISCO — Attorney General Mukasey, in an emotional plea for broad surveillance authority in the war on terror, is warning that the price for failing to empower the government would be paid in American lives.

Discussion: Think Progress and Wonkette

Andrew Malcolm / Top of the Ticket:

It's solved! Democratic race prediction: Neither Hillary Clinton nor Barack Obama will win — OK, here's what's going to happen in the messy Democratic presidential race: Neither one of your favorites is going to win. They're gonna tear each other apart to no successful end.