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 …

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 …

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 …

‘She Could Accept Losing.  She Could Not Accept Quitting.’  —  In a campaign of near-deaths and premature obituaries, the night of May 6 will be remembered inside Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign as the moment it really ended.  —  The staff had settled into the war room at the campaign's Arlington headquarters.

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 …

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 …

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.

Sen. Warner avoids backing would-be GOP successor  —  Sen. John Warner (R-Va.) is avoiding an endorsement in the closely watched Senate contest to succeed him, so far declining to support fellow Republican Jim Gilmore several days after the former Virginia governor clinched the GOP nomination.

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.

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.

Political fundraiser convicted in corruption trial  —  CHICAGO (AP) — A prominent fundraiser for Sen. Barack Obama and Gov. Rod Blagojevich was convicted of fraud, money laundering and bribery Wednesday after a trial that exposed a corrupt culture of payoffs and campaign finance abuses plaguing Illinois politics.

McCain Rips Off Obama's Slogan And Logo  —  Is John McCain trying to be the older, whiter, more conservative Barack Obama?  —  On Tuesday, the Senator co-opted the slogan that has come to personify Obama's candidacy, taking the Illinois Democrat's “Change You Can Believe In” and altering it into “A Leader You Can Believe In.”

Obama the naive  —  His views on world affairs ignore history and imperil the U.S. and our allies.  —  » Discuss Article Barack Obama's willingness to meet with the leaders of rogue states such as Iran and North Korea “without preconditions” is a naive and dangerous approach to dealing with the hard men who run pariah states.

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 …