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 …

Q&A: David Plouffe  —  Obama's Manager Discusses Clinton's Negatives & The Delegate Race  —  Fri.  —  National Journal's Linda Douglass sat down with David Plouffe, Barack Obama's campaign manager, for the April 25 edition of “National Journal On Air.”  This is a transcript of their conversation.

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 …

PBS Breaks Media Blackout of Pentagon Propaganda Bombshell  —  While most TV news organizations have refused to report or even comment on the bombshell Times article exposing a secret Pentagon propaganda campaign to sell Iraq policy, PBS just aired an important segment on the controversy.

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-DNC Fundraising Deal  —  After a series of discussions, the Obama campaign and the Democratic National Committee have decided to file papers with the Federal Election Commission establishing a “joint fundraising agreement.”  Under the law, such a committee can accept up to $28,500 from individuals …

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.

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: NC GOP “out of touch with reality”  —  As he said today on TODAY: “They're not listening to me because they're out of touch with reality and the Republican Party.  We are the party of Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan and this kind of campaigning is unacceptable.”

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.

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 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.

Lesson on How Not to Build a Navy Ship  —  With the crack of a Champagne bottle against its bow, the newly minted Navy warship, bedecked with bunting, slid sideways into the Menominee River in Wisconsin with a titanic splash.  —  Moments before the launching on Sept. 23, 2006, Adm. Mike Mullen …

Peggy Noonan Wonders If Obama Loves America, Has Ever Cried Thinking About Henry Ford  —  (Pictured: Peggy Noonan's hero receiving a Nazi medal in Nazi Germany from the Nazis.)  —  This is amazing, even for Nooner: … Let's leave aside the “snooty lefty” and “Men's Vogue” stuff.