Hillary: Why do I continue to run  —  This past Friday, during a meeting with a newspaper editorial board, I was asked about whether I was going to continue in the presidential race.  —  I made clear that I was - and that I thought the urgency to end the 2008 primary process was unprecedented.

Trouble brewing in N.Y. for Clinton  —  Black leaders say that if Hillary Rodham Clinton returns as senator, she'll need to heal racial wounds her campaign has inflicted.  —  Even as she continues her longshot presidential bid, Hillary Rodham Clinton faces a political rift in New York …

Lee Newspapers poll: Obama holds big edge over Clinton in Montana  —  HELENA - Barack Obama has grabbed a big lead over Hillary Clinton in Montana's June 3 Democratic presidential primary, a Lee Newspapers poll shows.  —  Obama leads Clinton by 52 percent to 35 percent among likely Democratic voters …

Obama's Lobbyist Connection  —  When Illinois utility Commonwealth Edison wanted state lawmakers to back a hefty rate hike two years ago, it took a creative lobbying approach, concocting a new outfit that seemed devoted to the public interest: Consumers Organized for Reliable Electricity, or CORE.

Obama Asks Wesleyan Students to Serve Their Country  —  Barack Obama, standing in for Senator Edward M. Kennedy as commencement speaker at Wesleyan University, invoked the Kennedy family's legacy of public service and challenged students to look beyond material gains and work for our “collective salvation.”

‘Ayatollah will not allow US-Iraq deal’  —  Iraq's most revered Shia cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani has strongly objected to a ‘security accord’ between the US and Iraq.  —  The Grand Ayatollah has reiterated that he would not allow Iraq to sign such a deal with “the US occupiers” …

McCain Campaign Lies About The Polls  —  The NY Times today quotes a McCain campaign adviser defending the campaign's performance because even though “the Republican Party brand is very, very badly damaged, ... Senator McCain is running even or ahead of Senator Obama in most national polls.”

Rendering Justice, With One Eye on Re-election  —  Last month, Wisconsin voters did something that is routine in the United States but virtually unknown in the rest of the world: They elected a judge.  —  The vote came after a bitter $5 million campaign in which a small-town trial judge …

ROVE'S NON-DENIAL DENIAL  —  On This Week this morning George Stephanopoulos asked Karl Rove if he denied contacting the Justice Department prosecuting former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman.  He responded with a textbook non-denial denial.  Here's the video ...  (ed.note: Special thanks to TPM Reader GB for the catch.)

Defeated . . . or Laying Low?  (Revised)  —  After two bloody months in Iraq, with civilian deaths spiking in Basra and especially in Sadr City, things have calmed down a bit.  As Petraeus said during his confirmation hearing in the Senate for CENTCOM commander: … How did this happen?