Obama's Image Slips, His Lead Over Clinton Disappears  —  Public Support for Free Trade Declines  —  Summary of Findings  —  Democratic voters are not as positive about Barack Obama as they were a month ago.  Somewhat smaller percentages of Democrats describe Obama in favorable terms …

McCain fields audience question on whether he called wife an expletive  —  A widespread Internet rumor about Sen. John McCain popped up in an audience question today during the Republican presidential candidate's Iowa forum.  —  A member of the audience at the Polk County Convention Complex asked …

‘D.C. Madam’ dead in Florida  —  Palfrey had been convicted of running $2 million prostitution ring  —  TARPON SPRINGS, Fla. - The woman convicted of running a high-end Washington prostitution ring that snagged a senator killed herself Thursday, police said, weeks after she was convicted on charges she vowed not to go to prison for.

An Unfinished Mission  —  Five years ago, President Bush declared the mission in Iraq accomplished.  The Post editorial board disagreed.  Here's what the board wrote on May 4, 2003.  —  The victory celebration held aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln Thursday was well-deserved …

Poll: Bush most unpopular in modern history  —  WASHINGTON (CNN) — A new poll suggests that George W. Bush is the most unpopular president in modern American history.  —  A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Thursday indicates that 71 percent of the American public disapprove …

Bloomberg: Clinton-McCain Gas Tax Break Is the ‘Dumbest Thing’  —  Michael Bloomberg said giving drivers a break from the gas tax is “the dumbest thing I've heard in an awful long time.”  —  I asked him about it right after he delivered his executive budget at City Hall just now.

Sidney Blumenthal Uses Former Right-Wing Foes To Attack Obama  —  Former journalist Sidney Blumenthal has been widely credited with coining the term “vast right-wing conspiracy” used by Hillary Clinton in 1998 to describe the alliance of conservative media, think tanks, and political operatives …

The Lincoln-Douglass Debate: Live On Fox!  —  Two weeks ago, publius tried to imagine what the Lincoln-Douglas Debates would have looked like had they been moderated by ABC.  I thought it was one of the funnier things I'd ever read.  It turns out, however, that in a startling breach with precedent …

Huckabee says Obama's former pastor needs him to lose  —  BILLINGS, Montana: Former Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee said Wednesday Barack Obama's bid for the White House is not being derailed because he is black, but because his former pastor does not want him to show the country's race relations have progressed.

MALPRACTICE  —  I really don't get what it is with the Clinton campaign sometimes.  Getting Joe Andrew's super-delegate endorsement is a minor coup for the Obama campaign.  It certainly gives them some help in Indiana.  But he's hardly a household name.  So why is it that when Howard Wolfson gets asked …

EXCLUSIVE: MYSTERIOUS CRIMES PLAGUE US ATTORNEY TARGETS  —  The Permanent Republican Majority Part VI  —  MONTGOMERY, ALABAMA - In two states where US attorneys are already under fire for serious allegations of political prosecutions, seven people associated with three federal cases …

What The Old Farts Don't Get  —  A reader writes: