Illinois Senator ahead by 3 points  —  Officials in both camps agree: The race is a toss-up that will remain hotly competitive  —  Sen. Barack Obama holds a narrow lead over Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton in Indiana, with the outcome of the May 6 primary likely in the hands of a large number …

OBAMA'S BAD LUCK WITH ADVISERS CONTINUES  —  Gabriel Schoenfeld reports on the latest Obama foreign policy adviser who turns out not to like Israel very much.  Add Joseph Cirincione to the list that includes Samantha Power, Robert Malley, Merrill McPeak, Zbigniew Brzezinski , and his spiritual adviser Jeremiah Wright.

Self-Inflicted Confusion  —  After Barack Obama's defeat in Pennsylvania, David Axelrod, his campaign manager, brushed it off: “Nothing has changed tonight in the basic physics of this race.”  —  He may well be right — but what a comedown.  A few months ago the Obama campaign was talking about transcendence.

Fair Is Fair  —  What's wrong with this picture?  Our campaign runs a TV ad Monday saying that the presidency is the toughest job in the world and giving examples of challenges presidents have faced and challenges the next president will face — including terrorism, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan …

Obama has a punctuation problem  —  Barack Obama's real opponent now is not Hillary Rodham Clinton.  It is a pair of punctuation marks.  —  The first is a question.  The second is an asterisk.  —  Both threaten to hover over Obama if he wins the Democratic nomination without confronting …

McCain changes his tune on taxes  —  Reversal includes new support for Bush cuts  —  Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., delivers a speech in Baton Rouge, La., on Thursday.  —  McCain slams Bush  —  April 24: John McCain slammed the White House's response to Katrina while on a visit to New Orleans.

Obama's ‘Distractions’?  —  Real change has never been easy. . . . The status quo in Washington will fight.  They will fight harder than ever to divide us and distract us with ads and attacks from now until November.  —  Pennsylvania primary night speech  —  With that, Obama identified …

The men in black vanish and Basra comes to life  —  The first Western journalist to enter the city since Operation Charge of the Knights was launched a month ago  —  Young women are daring to wear jeans, soldiers listen to pop music on their mobile phones and bands are performing at wedding parties again.

The Wright Stuff: ABC provides the context  —  Barack Obama needs another eruption of the Wright Stuff like he needs another video of him making fun of embittered Bible-thumping bigots, but at least the former appears inevitable.  ABC News responds to Jeremiah Wright's allegation that his words …

THE WORST OF TIMES  —  STAFF BRACES FOR LAYOFFS AFTER BUYOUTS FALL SHORT  —  THE New York Times' news room is bracing for a bloodbath in the next 10 days.  —  The word from inside is that approximately 50 unionized journalists have accepted the buyout proposal, and only another 20 non-union editorial employees have gotten on board.

Snipes Gets Maximum Sentence: 36 Months  —  OCALA, Fla. — Wesley Snipes was sentenced to 36 months in prison Thursday, the maximum sentence allowed.  —  Watch The Story  —  Snipes was convicted of three misdemeanor charges for not filing his taxes.  —  During the sentencing, Snipes did apologize.