Top Items:
Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:
TOXIC — For the last week it's seemed that Sens. Clinton and Obama were adhering to their tacit truce, continuing the primary campaign but avoiding the harsh exchanges that make later party unity a dimmer and dimmer prospect. Clinton particularly had deescalated her rhetoric.
RELATED:
Karen Tumulty / Time:
What Does Hillary Want? — A graceful exit is never easy in a business as fraught with ego and ambition as presidential politics. Which is why in recent days, quiet calls have started going out to key supporters of Hillary Clinton who are showing signs of wanting to jump ship.
Discussion:
The Politico, Taylor Marsh, The Jed Report, TIME.com, MyDD, Open Left, Political Machine, Salon and Daily Kos
Avi Zenilman / Ben Smith's Blogs:
Ickes: We want the Michigan uncommitted to stay uncommitted — In a conference call with reporters, Clinton Senior Adviser Harold Ickes clarified their position on Michigan — they don't want the 55 “uncommitted” delegates to go to Obama (his name did not appear on the ballot in Michigan).
Ian Bishop / NY Daily News:
I'd like wife to take my seat: Kennedy — Ted Kennedy has made clear to confidants that when his time is up, he wants his Senate seat to stay in the family - with his wife, Vicki. — Multiple sources in Massachusetts with close ties to the liberal lion say his wife of 16 years has long …
Discussion:
The Moderate Voice, The New Republic, New York Times, Scared Monkeys, Hot Air, Wake up America, Riehl World View, Jules Crittenden and TIME.com
Marc Ambinder:
Quietly, Obama Begins The Quest To Find A Running Mate — Very quietly, Sen. Barack Obama has begun the process that will end in his choosing a running mate, Democrats inside and outside the campaign said. — Obama has sworn a small group of his senior staff to secrecy.
Discussion:
Time, The Swamp, The Caucus, Spin Cycle, Top of the Ticket, Prairie Weather, The Democratic Daily and TIME.com
RELATED:
Nedra Pickler / Associated Press:
Officials say Obama starts search for running mate
Officials say Obama starts search for running mate
Discussion:
NY Daily News, Washington Wire, Donklephant, BuzzFlash.org, Corrente, The Carpetbagger Report, Sweetness & Light and MiamiHerald.com
Karen DeYoung / Washington Post:
Petraeus: Diplomacy, Not Force, With Iran — Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, President Bush's nominee to lead U.S. forces in the Middle East and Central Asia, supports continued U.S. engagement with international and regional partners to find the right mix of diplomatic, economic and military leverage …
RELATED:
Jodi Kantor / New York Times:
Many Florida Jews Express Doubts on Obama — BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. — At the Aberdeen Golf and Country Club on Sunday, the fountains were burbling, the man-made lakes were shining, and Shirley Weitz and Ruth Grossman were debating why Jews in this gated neighborhood of airy retirement homes feel …
Robert Novak / Real Clear Politics:
McCain Won't Play by Obama's Rules — WASHINGTON, D.C. — When one of the Democratic Party's most astute strategists this week criticized John McCain for attacking Barack Obama's desire to engage Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, I asked what the Republican presidential candidate ought to talk about in this campaign.
Discussion:
Swampland, JustOneMinute, Commentary, Jonathan Martin's Blogs, Hot Air, Don Surber, Real Clear Politics, Emptywheel, Eschaton and PrestoPundit
RELATED:
New York Times:
Kennedy Talked, Khrushchev Triumphed — IN his inaugural address, President John F. Kennedy expressed in two eloquent sentences, often invoked by Barack Obama, a policy that turned out to be one of his presidency's — indeed one of the cold war's — most consequential: “Let us never negotiate out of fear.
J. Taylor Rushing / The Hill:
Where right sees bogeyman, GOP sens. see go-to guy — Despite his reputation outside Washington as a liberal ideologue, Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) is revered by his adversaries on Capitol Hill for being the chamber's greatest dealmaker and Republicans sensed his absence as much as Democrats did Wednesday.
Discussion:
The Moderate Voice
RELATED:
Mark Silva / The Swamp:
Ellen DeGeneres weds: McCain walks me? — Ellen DeGeneres, who hosts a popular daytime television talk show and has announced on-air that she will marry her girlfriend, broached the question of gay marriage today with Republican John McCain, the party's presumptive presidential nominee.
Discussion:
Jonathan Martin's Blogs
RELATED:
The Politico:
Viral e-mails attack Obama's life story — The main obstacle standing between Barack Obama and the White House was distilled into five words by a local television correspondent in South Charleston, W.Va., earlier this month. — Prefacing a question about the challenges of winning over white …
Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:
Conservatives And The Wrong Problems — Ezra Klein: … I think this gets things the wrong way round. In fact, the argumnent is framed in such a way as to violate conservatism's core insight - and that was also the case with Packer's article (and a lot of what my friends, David Brooks, Reihan Salam and Ross Douthat said in it).
Glenn Greenwald / Salon:
The California marriage decision and basic civics — The Brookings Institutions' Ben Wittes has an article in The New Republic decrying the decision of the California Supreme Court striking down that state's discriminatory marriage law. Wittes' criticism of the decision reflects …
Discussion:
Lawyers, Guns and Money, The Daily Dish, RADAMISTO, Crunchy Con, Open Left and If I Ran the Zoo
Karl Rove / Wall Street Journal:
Obama's Troubling Instincts — Barack Obama is ambling rather than sprinting across the primary-season finish line. It's not just his failure to connect with blue-collar Democrats. He has added to his problems with ill-informed replies on critical foreign policy questions.
SurveyUSA:
Vice Presidential Matchups: Virginia — Here's a look at our May 2008 4×4 matrix of Vice Presidential possibilities in Virginia. — There's a finite limit to the number of names we can test in a given poll; we're aware not naming Jim Webb in Virginia (or Bill Richardson in New Mexico, among others) seems an oversight.