EXIT POLLS: Negative Campaign Tarnishes Clinton, Obama  —  Preliminary Exit Polls Show Few Last-Minute Deciders in Pennsylvania Primary  —  Despite all the down-to-the-wire campaigning, preliminary exit poll results indicate that nearly eight in 10 Pennsylvania voters made up their minds …

Disapproval of Bush breaks record  —  WASHINGTON — President Bush has set a record he'd presumably prefer to avoid: the highest disapproval rating of any president in the 70-year history of the Gallup Poll.  —  In a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll taken Friday through Sunday, 28% of Americans approve of the job Bush is doing; 69% disapprove.

Pennsylvania Voters Flood Polls After Long Battle  —  The Pennsylvania primary appeared too close to call on Tuesday night as the polls began closing, as Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton tried to stave off a stronger-than-expected showing by Senator Barack Obama on a potentially decisive night for the Democratic nominating contest.

BILL: 'I'M NOT GOING TO PLAY YOUR GAMES'  —  From NBC/NJ's Mike Memoli and NBC's Mark Murray  —  At the Jewish Community Center in Pittsburgh this morning, Bill Clinton took questions from local press after shaking a lot of hands.  NBC/NJ asked him about the WHYY radio interview …

McCain's Peak?  —  Even with the Democratic Party locked in a fierce civil war, John McCain still hasn't pulled ahead of either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama in national polls.  —  The Democratic primary campaign - divisive, bitter, and seemingly endless - has made many Republicans optimistic …

Why Can't Obama Win Pennsylvania?  *  —  There's this presumption out there, it seems to me, as if it's just a CRAZY notion that Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, would be able to win the Keystone State, like the idea is INSANE, just unfathomable, as if the state consists of Bill, Chelsea, and les freres Rodham.

Al Qaeda chief slams Muslims for lack of support … Al-Qaeda number two Ayman al-Zawahiri criticised Muslims for failing to support Islamist insurgencies in Iraq and elsewhere in a new audiotape posted Tuesday on the Internet.  —  Osama bin Laden's top lieutenant also blasted Palestinian …

Mitt Romney Gets Dissed at the Supreme Court  —  The Court heard oral argument today in Davis v. FEC, the case that asks whether the so-called Millionaires' Amendment of the McCain-Feingold law unconstitutionally burdens the free-speech rights of self-financing candidates for office.

Basra - Iraqi Military Gives 24 Hour Ultimatum  —  It's duelling ultimatum time.  Following hard on Sadr's, the Iraqi military has issued one of its own. … That's not going to happen so the fight will re-start in earnest and will rapidly spread all across the Shiite South and into Baghdad.

PENNSYLVANIA WRAP UP  —  We have been busy here over the last day or two, including links to 8 new polls that interviewed through Sunday night, so I am going to try use this post to wrap things up a bit.  All but one of the late surveys shows Clinton leading by margins of 5 to 13 points …

Mugged by Reality...  The New York Times featured an intriguing profile of Robert Downey Jr. this Sunday.  Star of the upcoming Iron Man, Downey is best known as the most-wasted talent of his generation (both literally and figuratively).  His drug problems became so bad that he even spent …