Congress To Hear Of Gains In Iraq  —  Petraeus, Crocker To Face Impatient Lawmakers  —  In a reprise of their testimony last September, Army Gen. David H. Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker plan to tell Congress today and tomorrow that security has improved in Iraq and that the government …

Obama Catching Up With Clinton In Pennsylvania, Quinnipiac University Poll Finds; She's Losing Ground Even Among Women  —  Illinois Sen. Barack Obama is catching up with New York Sen. Hillary Clinton in the Pennsylvania Democratic primary and now trails 50 - 44 percent among likely primary voters …

Shift at Top May Mean Shift in Tone for Clinton  —  WASHINGTON — “This isn't exactly what I was planning on when I woke up this morning,” Geoff Garin e-mailed Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton after a hasty weekend shake-up left him atop her campaign's strategy team.  —  Mrs. Clinton answered his dry humor in kind.

Surprising Political Endorsements By U.S. Troops  —  American Soldiers Speak Out About Their Presidential Endorsements  —  ABC's Martha Raddatz asked American soldiers in Iraq what issues are most important to them when looking at the presidential candidates.

Iraq War Attitudes Politically Polarized  —  Republicans generally favor the war; Democrats oppose it  —  PRINCETON, NJ — Republicans reject the idea of a timetable for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq, by a better than 2-to-1 margin, 65% to 32%.  Democrats show an even greater margin …

A Tale of Three Lawyers  —  On Thursday in the National Press Club in Washington, a crowd gathered to witness the presentation of the Ridenhour Prize for Truth-Telling to Lieutenant Commander Matthew Diaz.  The story of Matthew Diaz was chronicled in this space repeatedly (also here and here).

Builders of Nations  —  “This is my hardest deployment,” Marine Sergeant Cooley said as he unfastened his helmet and tossed it onto his bed.  “We weren't trained for this kind of thing.”  He's been shot at with bullets and mortars, and he's endured IED attacks on his Humvee …

Perkins, Toomey for Senate?  —  While most political observers are focused on the protracted Democratic primary fight between the senator from the state of New York and the senator from the state of Hope, rumors have been swirling in conservative circles that two of the movement's …

McCain Fundraising: A Call to Arms  —  As much as I don't want to sound unhelpful, it's time for a little tough love.  If anyone thinks McCain raising $15 million in March is good news — and crucially, just $4M of it from online and direct mail — then they're probably part of the problem rather than part of the solution.

ThinkFast: April 8, 2008  —  Aides say in today's testimony, Gen. Petraeus will recommend keeping “troop levels steady” after July and will “also tell lawmakers that Iraq's security situation has improved markedly in recent months but that the gains are fragile and could be easily reversed.”