From The “If McCain Did This” Files  —  Obama, below, is tired, nothing more.  —  But if John McCain did this — if he mistakenly said he'd visited 57 states — the media would be all up in his grill, accusing him of a senior moment.  Just saying....

Barack Obama sacks adviser over talks with Hamas  —  One of Barack Obama's Middle East policy advisers disclosed today that he had held meetings with the militant Palestinian group Hamas - prompting the likely Democratic nominee to sever all links with him.  —  Robert Malley told The Times …

NMI EXCLUSIVE: Count one more superdelegate for Barack Obama  —  New Mexico Democratic superdelegate Laurie Weahkee announced today she's backing Barack Obama.  —  SANTA FE — If Sen. Barack Obama needs a mere 170 more delegate votes to clinch the Democratic presidential nomination outright, he just got one vote closer.

Lanny Davis on CNN primary night: ‘Worst experience I ever had on television’  —  When Clinton supporter Lanny Davis appeared on CNN during primary night, shortly before 10 p.m., there was a peculiar exchange with host Anderson Cooper. … During the Election Night broadcast …

Fox News Assistant Fired For Red Carpet Disclosure  —  TVNewser Exclusive: A 24-year-old Fox News Channel production assistant was fired this morning for something she said during the red carpet arrivals at the Time 100 Gala last night.  —  Insiders tell us the assistant, identified as Jennifer Locke …

Kennedy: No veep slot for Clinton  —  It's fun to think about, but there are so many obstacles, and Ted Kennedy isn't buying, he said on Bloomberg Television's “Political Capital With Al Hunt,” which airs this weekend. … Ouch.

Killing by the numbers  —  In 2007 elite U.S. snipers executed an unarmed Iraqi prisoner in cold blood.  Have the insidious tactics that led to atrocities in Vietnam reemerged in Iraq?  —  Genei Nesir Khudair al-Janabi, an Iraqi vegetable farmer, walked down to the ramshackle pump house along the banks of the Euphrates.

The Conservative Revival  —  For years, American and British politics were in sync.  Reagan came in roughly the same time as Thatcher, and Clinton's Third Way approach mirrored Blair's.  But the British conservatives never had a Gingrich revolution in the 1990s or the Bush victories thereafter.

Where did the Web rumors about Obama come from?  —  WASHINGTON — Some things about Barack Obama rub some voters the wrong way.  —  “We don't need a Muslim,” said Jannay Smith, a retiree from Kokomo, Ind. “Who's to say if he gets in there what he'll do?”  —  Added Steve Shallenberger …

Clinton Supporters Send Last-Ditch Obama Attack Emails To Supers  —  As the Democratic primary nears its long-awaited conclusion, undecided superdelegates have been drowned under a sudden deluge of angry, sometimes vicious emails from Hillary Clinton supporters urging them to not fall in line behind Barack Obama.

McCain to Me in 1999: Bush “As Dumb as a Stump”  —  As a lawyer might say (OK, I am one), I have no personal; knowledge of whether John or Cindy McCain voted for George W. Bush in the 2000 election.  However, now that that has been called into question by Arianna Huffington (who says no) …

Gallup Daily: Obama Not Yet Pulling Away  —  Democratic nomination preferences remain evenly divided  —  PRINCETON, NJ — According to Gallup Poll Daily tracking, Democratic voters remain closely divided in their presidential nomination preferences, with 48% favoring Barack Obama and 46% backing Hillary Clinton.