Gallup Daily: Obama Takes Lead Over McCain, 48% to 42%  —  Has consistently led McCain since Clinton decided to suspend campaign  —  PRINCETON, NJ — Barack Obama is enjoying a modest bump in support following Hillary Clinton's exit from the presidential race.

Pelosi backs Emanuel for senator from Ill.  —  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is reported to be privately talking about Rep. Rahm Emanuel, the House Democratic Caucus chairman, as the next senator from Illinois if Sen. Barack Obama wins the presidential election.

‘Bush Lied’?  If Only It Were That Simple.  —  Search the Internet for “Bush Lied” products, and you will find sites that offer more than a thousand designs.  The basic “Bush Lied, People Died” bumper sticker is only the beginning.  —  Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.) …

Top Obama-Clinton Officials Begin Reconciliation Process  —  The reconciliation process between the upper echelons of the Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton campaigns has already begun, as advisers and fundraisers look for areas of commonality in a somewhat disjointed party.

Senate Votes To Privatize Its Failing Restaurants  —  Year after year, decade upon decade, the U.S. Senate's network of restaurants has lost staggering amounts of money — more than $18 million since 1993, according to one report, and an estimated $2 million this year alone, according to another.

Countrywide Friends Got Good Loans  —  Mozilo Sought, Received Better Rates for Some; Problems for Fannie Mae?  —  Countrywide Financial Corp. makes mortgage loans through a vast network of offices, brokers and call centers.  But a few customers have gotten their loans a special way: through Countrywide Chief Executive Angelo Mozilo.

It's a Different Country  —  Fervent supporters of Barack Obama like to say that putting him in the White House would transform America.  With all due respect to the candidate, that gets it backward.  Mr. Obama is an impressive speaker who has run a brilliant campaign — but if he wins in November …

Elizabeth Edwards to have Obama's ear  —  Barack Obama announced in his economy speech today that Elizabeth Edwards will work with him on healthcare policy — the issue that is the cause of her life and on which she preferred Hillary Clinton.  —  While her husband John Edwards gave …

State GOP fears grouchy voters won't go to polls  —  Convention opens here amid some discontent within the party  —  AUSTIN — After a decade of political dominance, the Texas GOP is opening its party convention in Houston this week with a troubling prospect: Grumpy Republicans may not turn out to vote this fall.

McCain's Web site talks about the anti-Christ being ‘a Jew,’ Hillary being a ‘bitch,’ Obama being a ‘Muslim fag,’ and America bringing 9/11 on itself  —  · Digg It!  ·  —  UPDATE: Jed finds more on other McCain sites, including a reference to Obama as a n*gger.

Hillary Clinton paid a heavy price for presidential run  —  Eighteen million votes: $212 million.  Some 1,926 delegates: $109,823 a pop. Blowing the biggest head start in presidential history: priceless.  —  From anointed to also-ran, Hillary Clinton spent more money to lose a primary election …

Citing History, Bush Suggests His Policies Will One Day Be Vindicated  —  Meet George W. Bush, time traveler.  —  He's in Poland in 1939 as Nazi tanks advance on Warsaw, then flying with his Navy-pilot father to battle imperial Japan.  He's alongside Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War …

McCain resurrects call for gas tax holiday  —  From CNN Political Producer Peter Hamby, CNN's Dana Bash  —  WASHINGTON (CNN) - With gas prices reaching a national average of four dollars a gallon — a record high — John McCain is planning to resurrect his call for a national gas tax holiday …

Obama ‘fist bump’ catching on  —  (CNN) — In a reference to Barack and Michelle Obama's celebratory fist bump on Tuesday, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California, and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, ended their conversation on CNN's Late Edition with their own version of the “hand shake.”

White Male Pundit Power  —  It's still all about the white men.  Hillary Clinton's loss has renewed critiques that American political media is slanted, sexist and dominated by men.  While Clinton and Obama broke barriers in the Democratic primary, swiftly dispatching white male Senators …

Mr. Right?  —  The rise of the Obamacons.  —  The New Yorker is hardly the optimal vehicle for reaching the conservative intelligentsia.  But, last year, Barack Obama cooperated with a profile for that magazine where he seemed to be speaking directly to the right.