GOP fears Obama's money machine  —  With Hillary Clinton's campaign coming to an end this weekend, Barack Obama's rise as the Democratic nominee brings serious bad news to a new group — John McCain's finance team.  —  A review of campaign finance data offers not one ounce of good news …

FIRST THOUGHTS: OBAMA'S WIDER MAP  —  From Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, and Domenico Montanaro  —  *** Obama's wider map: About two months ago, we unveiled our early look at the electoral map.  And this being the second official day of the general election, now's as good a time as any to see where we stand in the McCain vs. Obama race.

Clinton Unlikely as No. 2  —  Concession Expected Saturday; Obama Camp Discounts VP Talk  —  WASHINGTON — Supporters of Sen. Hillary Clinton suggested she would like to be Sen. Barack Obama's running mate, but close advisers to Sen. Obama are signaling that an Obama-Clinton ticket is highly unlikely.

Revealed: Secret plan to keep Iraq under US control  —  Bush wants 50 military bases, control of Iraqi airspace and legal immunity for all American soldiers and contractors  —  A secret deal being negotiated in Baghdad would perpetuate the American military occupation of Iraq indefinitely …

Obama In Heated Conversation With Lieberman  —  Update: Obama and Lieberman had a heated conversation on the floor of the Senate later today.  Details below.  —  Senator Joe Lieberman, serving aptly as John McCain's foreign policy attack dog, jumped on a conference call with reporters …

HOW ‘LIBERAL’ CARE WOULD KILL TED  —  IRONICALLY enough, the dangers of the lib eral health-care agenda are being made clear by the care that a liberal icon, Sen. Ted Kennedy, has received since his brain seizure last month.  —  One day after an MRI detected a tumor, Kennedy was quickly diagnosed …

Breaking — Obama to change DNC lobbyist policy, will focus on small-group economy chats  —  Good Thursday morning.  —  DRIVING THE DAY: On Day 2 as nominee, Senator Obama wants to show that he will change the nation's politics.  As the presumptive DemoObama already eager to show …

Many Blacks Find Joy in Unexpected Breakthrough  —  Kwabena Sam-Brew, a 38-year-old immigrant from Ghana, doubted that Nana, his 5-year-old American-born daughter, would remember the rally that effectively crowned Senator Barack Obama as the Democratic nominee Tuesday night.

CBS Poll: Obama Leads McCain  —  Obama Ahead By Six Points; But Many Clinton Voters Plan To Back McCain  —  (CBS) Presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama holds a six point lead over his Republican counterpart John McCain, a new CBS News poll finds.  Obama leads McCain 48 percent …

PHASE II  —  The Senate intel committee's Phase II report on pre-war intelligence on Iraq is just out.  We'll be bringing you more through the day, but if you're eager to take a look, you can find the reports here:  —  “Report on Whether Public Statements Regarding Iraq by U.S. Government officials …

How Obama Did It  —  Barack Obama was campaigning last October in South Carolina when he got an urgent call from Penny Pritzker, the hotel heiress who leads his campaign's finance committee.  About 200 of his biggest fund raisers were meeting in Des Moines, Iowa, and among them, near panic was setting in.