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....

Obama Now Takes The Lead in Superdelegates Too  —  ABC News' Karen Travers Reports: For the first time this campaign season, Barack Obama has surpassed Hillary Clinton's support among superdelegates, according to the ABC News delegate estimate.  —  Sen. Obama, D-Ill., picked up two superdelegates …

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 …

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.

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 …

Rahm Emanuel: Obama Is Our Presumptive Nominee  —  One of the most influential (and thus far subdued) voices in the Democratic primary all but declared the contest over on Friday morning.  —  “At this point, Barack is the presumptive nominee,” said Rep. Rahm Emanuel during the New Yorker's magazine conference.

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.

Clyburn: Would Clinton Get Only 8 Percent Of the Black Vote?  —  In an interview with National Journal's Linda Douglas, Rep. James Clyburn gives the corollary to the argument that Barack Obama faces a deficit with white working class males. … Later, he explains why he's neutral …

John McCain called out by Jed Bartlet's aides  —  JERSEY CITY, N.J. — It turns out that hobnobbing with liberal blogger Arianna Huffington and the cast of NBC's “The West Wing” on the left coast can be a risky proposition for a Republican with White House ambitions.

Damsel of Distress  —  This is an amazing story.  The Democratic Party has a winner.  It has a nominee.  You know this because he has the most votes and the most elected delegates, and there's no way, mathematically, his opponent can get past him.  Even after the worst two weeks of his campaign …

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.

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.

Bernie Ward admits to child porn in plea deal  —  (05-08) 18:49 PDT SAN FRANCISCO — Bernie Ward, the most prominent liberal voice on Bay Area talk radio for more than two decades, admitted Thursday to distribution of child pornography by e-mail in a plea deal that will send him to federal prison for at least five years.

Spells Cast at Anti-Marine Rally in California  —  Members of the anti-war group Code Pink gathered Friday with a cauldron of flowers outside a controversial Marine Corps Recruiting Center in Berkeley, Calif., to use witchcraft to rally against the Iraq war.