Obama Speech Fails to Assuage White Indiana Voters  —  Andrea Helmer was interested in Barack Obama until she heard sound bites of his fiery pastor's sermons.  Last week, she volunteered for Hillary Clinton's campaign in Indiana.  —  “As things came out regarding some of the things his pastor has said …

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 …

Clinton's convention strategy in doubt  —  If the fight over whether to count the results in Florida and Michigan makes it to the Democratic National Convention, Hillary Clinton will not have enough pledged votes on the 169-member Credentials Committee to deliver a majority decision in her favor …

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 …

Negotiations May Lead to Mugabe's Exit in Zimbabwe  —  HARARE, Zimbabwe — The opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai is in talks with advisers to President Robert G. Mugabe of Zimbabwe, amid signs that some of those close to Mr. Mugabe may encourage him to resign, a Western diplomatic source …

Obama Is Moving to Down-to-Earth Oratory  —  STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — The Speech is his finely polished sword, a transcendent weapon.  Seen and heard on a thousand YouTube postings, Senator Barack Obama's speeches have made a happening of that hoariest of campaign forms, the stump speech.

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.

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 …

In Gaza, Hamas's Insults to Jews Complicate Peace  —  GAZA — In the Katib Wilayat mosque one recent Friday, the imam was discussing the wiliness of the Jew.  —  “Jews are a people who cannot be trusted,” Imam Yousif al-Zahar of Hamas told the faithful.  “They have been traitors to all agreements — go back to history.

Inside the Black Budget  —  Clockwise from top left: Ghost Squadron.  For search and rescue; National Reconnaissance Office.  Dragon is code for infrared imaging on advanced KH-11 satellites; Desert Prowler.  May represent Groom Lake, Nev., a k a Area 51; Special Projects Office.

Obama is our Mandela  —  Only one candidate offers the radical departure for the 21st century the US needs, for its own sake and the rest of the world's  —  I have come home from a long stay in Mexico to find - because of the presidential campaign, and especially because of the Obama-Clinton race …

Hillary “Rocky” Clinton in Philadelphis  —  Senator Clinton has been telling Pennsylvania voters that she's in this race to the very end to fight for them, and now she's adopting the mantle of the Keystone State's biggest fighter - Rocky Balboa.  —  In excerpt of a speech she's set to give …

Intelligence Director McConnell is cast as a lobbyist  —  Congressional Democrats see the spy chief as an agent of the Bush administration.  Relations are strained.  —  WASHINGTON — On the eve of a House vote on controversial wiretapping legislation last month, the nation's intelligence director …

Did Paul Berman Oppose the War?  —  Spencer Ackerman catches Paul Berman trying to convince us that he was against the war in Iraq.  Berman, in this incident, tries to chalk up the fact that many people think he supported the war to the fact “that afterward I haven't made a career of running around saying I told you so.”

“Great American Hypocrites: Toppling the Big Myths of Republican Politics”  —  My new book — Great American Hypocrites: Toppling the Big Myths of Republican Politics — is available for online ordering now.  It will be available in book stores beginning April 15.

Obama's Oil Spill  —  Obama says he doesn't take money from oil companies.  We say that's a little too slick.  —  In a new ad, Obama says, “I don't take money from oil companies.”  —  Technically, that's true, since a law that has been on the books for more than a century prohibits corporations …