memeorandum: Hillary Telling Local Media In Future Voting States That Obama Wants Race To End (Greg Sargent/TPM Election Central)

7:50 PM ET, April 1, 2008

Top Items:

Harold Ickes Confirms That Wright Is Key Topic In Discussions With Super-Delegates — In an interview with me this morning, senior Hillary adviser Harold Ickes confirmed that Reverend Jeremiah Wright is a key topic in discussions with uncommitted super-delegates over whether Obama is electable in a general election.

Discussion: TalkLeft, Marc Ambinder, Open Left, Fox News, Hot Air, Daily Kos, AMERICAblog and Wake up America

Beth Fouhy / Associated Press:

Clinton compares herself to ‘Rocky’ — PHILADELPHIA - Perhaps the analogy was inevitable: Hillary Rodham Clinton as Rocky Balboa, the scrappy underdog boxer from Philadelphia memorably depicted in the 1976 Oscar-winning film. Even if Rocky did lose his first big fight.

Discussion: FOX Embeds, MSNBC, American Street, PoliBlog (TM), Washington Wire, Don Surber, Wizbang, Sweetness & Light and PunditGuy

WCAU-TV:

Exclusive Poll: Clinton's Lead Shrinks In Pa. — Clinton Leads By 12 Points, Survey Finds — If the Democratic primary in Pennsylvania were held Tuesday, April 1, Hillary Clinton would defeat Barack Obama by 12 percentage points, according to a recent SurveyUSA poll conducted exclusively …

Discussion: SurveyUSA, Bloomberg, Barack Obama 2008, New York Times, Examining Presidential …, MyDD, NPR Blogs, Political Machine, Boston Globe, The Moderate Voice, Newshoggers.com, Taylor Marsh, TalkLeft, Sister Toldjah, Truthdig and Donklephant

Gallup:

Gallup Daily: Obama 49%, Clinton 45% — McCain has slight edge over both Democrats — PRINCETON, NJ — The latest Gallup Poll Daily tracking update shows a closer Democratic nomination race than has been the case in recent days, with 49% of Democratic voters nationwide saying they are most likely …

Discussion: Pollster.com

Devlin Barrett / Associated Press:

Obama casts race between him, McCain — WILKES-BARRE, Pa. - Sen. Barack Obama is talking about the elephant in the room — Republican rival John McCain — and all but ignoring the Democrat who stands between him and his party's presidential nomination. — Even though Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton …

Discussion: Jonathan Martin's Blogs and Hot Air

Hillary Clinton / CNN:

Clinton backer: Obama will win — (CNN) — A key Hillary Clinton supporter appeared to be a bit off message during a recent interview with a Canadian radio station. — “If I had to make a prediction right now, I'd say Barack Obama is going to be the next president,” Missouri Rep. Emanuel Cleaver …

Discussion: The Page

Ben Smith / The Politico:

Cleaver's bluntness — In an unusually frank interview on Canadian public radio, CBC, Rep. Emmanuel Cleaver of Kansas City — a Hillary supporter and superdelegate — gives a sense of how tenuous Clinton's hold on many black superdelegates is. — “If I had to make a prediction right now …

Discussion: The Swamp, CBC.ca, Political Machine and skippy the bush kangaroo

Lydia Saad / Gallup:
Clinton Less Appealing Than Obama as Potential V.P.

Discussion: The Swamp, Talking Points Memo and TPM Election Central

Associated Press:
Pelosi says Democratic race should go on

Discussion: Weekly Standard Blog, The Sundries Shack, Taylor Marsh, Wonkette, NY Daily News, Jules Crittenden, Don Surber, PoliGazette and The Strata-Sphere

Washington Post:
As Rivals Battle, McCain Builds November Machine

Discussion: Stumper, Marc Ambinder, Firedoglake, Jonathan Martin's Blogs, American Power and The Page

Scott Helman / Boston Globe:
Superdelegates buoy Obama in rough month

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, The New Republic, New York Times and The Caucus

David Kurtz / Talking Points Memo:

THE ADMIRAL THAT CAN'T SHOOT STRAIGHT — It doesn't take much to gain a reputation in Washington as a straight-shooter, and it takes a lot to lose it. — Adm. Mike McConnell came in as the Director of National Intelligence with a rep for being professional and non-partisan …

Discussion: TPMMuckraker, Balkinization and Eschaton

Spencer Ackerman / The Washington Independent:
No Iraq Intelligence Update For You!

Discussion: TPMMuckraker

Gabriel Schoenfeld / Wall Street Journal:
The Real Bush Intelligence Failure

Discussion: The Belmont Club

Neil Midgley / Telegraph:

Flying penguins found by BBC programme — The BBC will today screen remarkable footage of penguins flying as part of its new natural history series, Miracles of Evolution. — Camera crews discovered a colony of Adélie penguins while filming on King George Island, some 750 miles south of the Falkland Islands.

Discussion: Achenblog, The Underwire, Guardian Unlimited and Guardian

Wonk Room:

Elizabeth Edwards Responds: Why Are People Like Me Left Out Of Your Health Care Proposal, Sen. McCain? — Our guest blogger is Elizabeth Edwards, wife of former Presidential candidate John Edwards. — I freely admit that I am confused about the role of overnight funding in repurchase markets in the collapse of Bear Stearns.

Discussion: Think Progress, Jonathan Martin's Blogs, D-Day, Macsmind, Reuters, The Trail, American Street and Shakesville

Ali / Think Progress:

Student calls McCain out for political motivations of school appearance. — Today Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) stopped at his alma mater, Episcopal High School in Virginia, to lecture on the importance of teaching and the honor code. McCain's toughest question came from student Katelyn Halldorson …

Discussion: Weekly Standard Blog and Shakesville

Hotline On Call:
“I Hope Attendance Here Was Not Compulsory”

Discussion: Wonkette

Dani Rodrik / Dani Rodrik's weblog:

American political economics in one picture — Look at the figure below, and then look at it again, and again, and again. It is the most telling picture about the U.S. political economy I have ever seen. — It comes from Princeton political scientist Larry Bartels' new book, soon to be released.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Matthew Yglesias, Comments from Left Field, Will Wilkinson, The G Spot, Angry Bear and Economist's View

The Politico:

Pentagon balked on gay partner travel — Prior to the Easter recess, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was forced to intervene with Defense Secretary Robert Gates in order to get Democratic Rep. Tammy Baldwin's domestic partner on a military flight for a congressional fact-finding trip to Europe.

Discussion: New York Times, The Swamp, The Crypt's Blogs, Think Progress, Pam's House Blend, TPMMuckraker and Outside The Beltway

Fafnir / Fafblog:

everything depends on the getaway — “Screw this dump!” says Giblets. “This universe is old and fat and smells like smelling and Giblets is busting out!” — “Should we go over the wall or take the tunnel?” says me. I been diggin a tunnel. — “Nuts to the tunnel!” says Giblets.

Michelle Malkin:

Lights out at MichelleMalkin.com Update (noon): Flipped the switch — Update: It's noon and I've flipped the switch back on. Let there be light! — Today I am going dark. — We've turned out the lights at MichelleMalkin.com. Why? To raise awareness of empty awareness-raising gestures …

Discussion: Donklephant

Media Matters for America:

Matthews on Obama: “[T]his gets very ethnic, but the fact that he's good at basketball doesn't surprise anybody” — On the March 31 edition of MSNBC's Hardball, discussing Sen. Barack Obama's bowling performance at a March 29 campaign stop at Pleasant Valley Lanes in Altoona, Pennsylvania …

Discussion: Feministing, The Carpetbagger Report, D-Day, Lance Mannion and Democracy in America