West Virginia could spell trouble for Obama  —  Scant support among white working-class Democrats, especially men, could dog him into November.  —  MOOREFIELD, W.VA. — In Hardy County, Democrats outnumber Republicans more than 2 to 1.  But there is little enthusiasm for Barack …

Wow, We Nominated The Black Guy  —  Wow, it is really happening: Barack Obama will be the Democratic nominee for President of the United States.  Only eighteen months after the Democratic Party elected Nancy Pelosi the first female Speaker of the House, we are now the first major party to nominate an African-American for President.

In big concession, militia agrees to let Iraqi troops into Sadr City  —  BAGHDAD — Followers of rebel cleric Muqtada al Sadr agreed late Friday to allow Iraqi security forces to enter all of Baghdad's Sadr City and to arrest anyone found with heavy weapons in a surprising capitulation …

Obama: time to engage in diplomacy  —  Guess what time it is?  It's time for Obama's “diplomatic efforts” to come save the day. … Oh the time we wasted by fighting Hizbullah all those years with rockets, invasions of their homes and shutting down their media outlets.

Seeds of Destruction  —  The Clintons have never understood how to exit the stage gracefully.  —  Their repertoire has always been deficient in grace and class.  So there was Hillary Clinton cold-bloodedly asserting to USA Today that she was the candidate favored by “hard-working Americans …

Kick Burma Out of the U.N.  —  The United Nations this week said the refusal of Burma's government to allow workers into the country's devastated agricultural region was unprecedented in the history of humanitarian relief.  The human catastrophe produced by Burma's refusal to permit aid …

For First Time, More Superdelegates Favor Obama  —  The trump card Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton held in her faltering bid for president — her support among the superdelegates who can control the fate of the Democratic nomination — began slipping from her grasp on Friday as Senator Barack …

Quitters Never Win  —  When I was growing up in the 1960s, I wanted to play basketball.  In those days, the rules said girls could dribble only three steps and then had to pass the ball.  To make sure we didn't overexert ourselves, we weren't allowed to cross the half-court line.

On GI Bill, McCain really is ‘full of it’  —  A couple of weeks ago, John McCain talked about the importance of increasing the size of the U.S. military.  To entice more volunteers, he said, the government should focus on incentives: “[O]ne of the things we ought to do is provide [the troops with] …

WaPo Manufactures McCain Scandal  —  When is a senator doing constituent work and when is he tied up in an influence-peddling scandal?  The lines seem blurred when it comes to the media's coverage of the land swap deals Republican presidential candidate John McCain has been involved in.

Gas Prices Send Surge of Riders to Mass Transit  —  DENVER — With the price of gas approaching $4 a gallon, more commuters are abandoning their cars and taking the train or bus instead.  —  Mass transit systems around the country are seeing standing-room-only crowds on bus lines where seats were once easy to come by.

E-Mail Shows Racial Jokes by Secret Service Supervisors  —  WASHINGTON — Secret Service supervisors shared crude sexual jokes and engaged in racially derogatory banter about blacks, and passed around an anecdote about a possible assassination of the Rev. Jesse Jackson, according …

The Kind of Best Friend You'd Love a Kid to Have  —  So last night I went to the Best Friends Foundation's 20th-anniversary celebration.  Since I had missed young Colin Powell and Bill Bennett singing “How Sweet It Is” in shades and leather bomber jackets in years past …

THE DIVINE RIGHT OF PUNDITS!  Krugman has some decent ideas.  Robinson has a sense of entitlement:  —  YOU MAY HAVE BEEN WITH STUPID: Yesterday, an e-mailer said that our choice for commissar has done previous posts which explain who he was talking about.  His example went back some days.