Obama Addresses Critics on ‘Centrist’ Moves  —  POWDER SPRINGS, Ga. — Barack Obama had heard quite enough of the complaints that he is pirouetting, leaping, lurching even, toward the political center.  —  He is at heart, he told a crowd in suburban Atlanta, a pretty progressive guy …

McCain Campaign Screening Questioners?  —  WASHINGTON DISPATCH: Political reporters are wondering if McCain aides are vetting the journalists who ask questions during campaign conference calls for the media.  The evidence suggests they are; the campaign won't say.

Our Full Page Ad in the Washington Post Against FISA Bill  —  The vote in the Senate on FISA is scheduled for this week.  Debate starts today, but the vote will probably be pushed until Wednesday due to Jesse Helms' funeral.  —  Today, thanks to your contributions, we're taking out a full page ad …

Murphy won't join McCain  —  Mike Murphy, a political consultant who helped Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) mastermind his 2000 campaign, will not be reboarding the Straight Talk Express.  —  “I do not expect to join the campaign,” Murphy said.  “They're my friends, and I wish them well.”

Energy bill out of gas  —  House Democrats are in a bind on the focal point of their energy plan.  —  Worried that a floor vote on any energy-related measure would trigger a Republican-forced vote on domestic drilling, the leadership has scrubbed the floor schedule of the energy legislation …

McCain Responds to Maliki's Call for an Iraq Withdrawal Timetable  —  Sen. John McCain, who has repeatedly derided anyone who advocated a timetable for withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, now suddenly finds himself in a political box as the American-backed Iraqi leadership yesterday raised the prospect of exactly that.

Forced servitude in America?  —  The U.S. already has high rates of volunteerism, but that's apparently not good enough for our presidential candidates.  —  There's a weird irony at work when Sen. Barack Obama, the black presidential candidate who will allegedly scrub the stain of racism from the nation …

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Voters Perceive Obama Moving to the Middle  —  Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has done a far more effective job than Republican John McCain in recent weeks moving himself to the middle in the minds of voters, according to the latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone surveys.

Misreading Obama  —  Right-wing nutter Spengler defends the idea that Obama hates America.  It is Obama's appreciation of the customs and culture of Indonesia that set him off: … Now here's the passage in Dreams Form My Father that Spengler objected to:

Unbelievable: Obama's flip flops fly in the face of change  —  As the economy worsens and the war in Iraq drags on, it's no wonder that almost 80 percent of Americans believe we're heading down the “wrong track.”  —  After eight years of George W. Bush's ruinous policies, the American people are aching for change.

Risky Business  —  The waiters were still clearing the breakfast dishes yesterday when John McCain's most prominent adviser raised the subject of erection enhancement.  —  Carly Fiorina, the former Hewlett-Packard chief who is now the Republican National Committee's “Victory Chairman,” …

Back From War, Into Tabloid Territory  —  Foreign Affairs Correspondent Lara Logan's Public Private Life  —  After four years of living in Baghdad, war was taking its toll on Lara Logan.  —  As CBS's chief foreign affairs correspondent, she regularly risked her life by accompanying American forces in combat.

Former CIA Agent in Iran Comes In from the Heat  —  Going public for the first time in an article and interview on Pajamas Media, an Iranian who infiltrated Iran's Revolutionary Guard for the CIA accuses the mullahs of orchestrating — among other things — the 1988 explosion of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.

The NY Times sends a Dittohead to interview Rush Limbaugh  —  In his Sunday profile of right-wing talker Rush Limbaugh, New York Times Magazine contributor Zev Chafets set the scene by describing his visit to Limbaugh's studio in Palm Beach, Florida.  Chafets wrote that when he was buzzed …

A STATEMENT FROM RENE MARIE  —  WHAT HAPPENED?  —  Last month, I was contacted by a staff member of the Mayor's office and was asked to sing the “Star Spangled Banner”.  I knew if I sang at this event I would not be singing the standard version of this song, but would be singing my own version of it.

McCain: ‘I Would Imagine We Are’ in a Recession  —  Senator John McCain hit the morning shows today, following the first day of his weeklong “Jobs First” tour in various parts of the country.  —  He was asked on MSNBC's “Morning Joe” program whether he believed the nation was in a recession, that dreaded “R” term.