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 …

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'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.

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 …

John Edwards's supporters are flocking to Sen. Obama  —  Donors, activists and members of Congress who backed former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) are flocking to Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.).  —  This and the fact that Obama is likely to win the North Carolina primary could prompt Edwards to endorse Obama …

McCain On The Blogger Conferencee Call: Obama Must Repudiate Ayers And Apologize For Associating With An Unrepentant Terrorist  —  Senator McCain began the conference call with a review of his recent speeches, high praise for Louisiana's Bobby Jindal, and a vigorous defense of tax cuts …

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 …

Iraq War Is Everyone Else's Fault, Feith Explains  —  Mistakes were made.  But not by him.  —  Doug Feith, the No. 3 man at the Pentagon before, during and after the invasion of Iraq, has come in for his share of blame for the failures there — in large part because he led the Pentagon policy shop …

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 …

Study says near extinction threatened people 70,00 years ago  —  WASHINGTON - Human beings may have had a brush with extinction 70,000 years ago, an extensive genetic study suggests.  The human population at that time was reduced to small isolated groups in Africa, apparently because of drought …

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.

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.

McCain: “Clear Who Hamas Wants to be the Next President”  —  McCain spoke with bloggers this morning on a number of issues ranging from William Ayers to Rev. Wright to Tony Rezko.  Jennifer Rubin noted that Hamas had endorsed Senator Obama and asked McCain whether Obama might have given “an unhelpful signal” to the terrorist group.

Dancing with News Corp.  —  It's been an interesting week in the relationship between Barack Obama and the country's most political media mogul, Rupert Murdoch.  —  On Monday, Obama, unprompted, took a shot at Murdoch, making his name a synonym for malign media consolidation.