Obama Calls Berlin a ‘Symbol of the Victory of Hope’  —  US Presidential Candidate Barack Obama started his much-anticipated trip to Germany on Thursday, and the expectations are massive.  SPIEGEL ONLINE will be following his every move through Berlin with its Live Ticker.

Beetle in a Box  —  So John McCain said the surge led to the Anbar Awakening even though the Awakening, in fact, happened before the surge began.  So he's ignorant.  Or maybe dishonest.  But now we learn he's also rather stubborn: … Shawn Brimley tries to bring common sense to bear on this …

McCain Makes Significant Gains in Four Key Battleground States  —  Majority of Voters in Colorado, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin Favor Keeping Troops in Iraq, According to Quinnipiac-washingtonpost.com- Wall Street Journal Survey  —  Republican John McCain has quickly closed …

Sorry We Asked, Sorry You Told  —  Don't ask, don't tell.  And, whatever you do, don't ask Elaine Donnelly to tell you what she thinks about gays in the military.  —  The House Armed Services personnel subcommittee made just such a miscalculation yesterday.

Obama's Tour de Force  —  It made no sense when Barack Obama left the country on his nine-day overseas tour for some of my fellow columnists to describe it as a high-risk venture.  —  Foreign leaders, who can read the polls as well as anyone, would go out of their way not to embarrass a man who may …

Moon-walker claims alien contact cover-up  —  FORMER NASA astronaut and moon-walker Dr Edgar Mitchell - a veteran of the Apollo 14 mission - has stunningly claimed aliens exist.  —  And he says extra-terrestrials have visited Earth on several occasions - but the alien contact …

GOP losing the new-media war  —  Republicans have no lack of would-be George F. Wills.  —  But what they really need are some more Robert D. Novaks.  —  The distinction between the two prominent conservative journalists isn't always obvious, but it's nevertheless important to understand …

FIRST THOUGHTS: OBAMA'S ELECTION TO WIN  —  From Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, and Domenico Montanaro  —  *** Obama's election to win: How important has this overseas trip been for Obama?  Look no further than our latest NBC/WSJ poll, which has Obama leading McCain by six points (47%-41%), unchanged from last month.

Voter Unease With Obama Lingers Despite His Lead  —  Poll Finds Background, Experience Are Advantages for McCain  —  WASHINGTON — Midway through the election year, the presidential campaign looks less like a race between two candidates than a referendum on one of them — Sen. Barack Obama.

Source: Novak's Victim Worse Than First Thought  —  The pedestrian who was struck by prominent Washington columnist and commentator Robert Novak is in worse shape than first thought, a hospital source tells ABC 7 News.  —  The victim, a 66-year-old man, appeared somewhat incoherent, said the source who had seen the victim.

Documents Released by the CIA and Justice Department in Response to the ACLU's Torture FOIA  —  Contains “communications from the CIA to OLC on a matter in which the CIA requested legal advice from OLC” and shows that CIA interrogators were permitted to use both “Standard Techniques” and …

The Party of Cheetos  —  I'm a pretty regular Morning Joe watcher as it happens, and I even caught some of yesterday's broadcast.  But I missed the part where Joe Scarborough made a ludicrous defense of John McCain screwing up the chronology of events in Iraq and then launched into an unhinged attack on, well, me and my friends:

JOHN EDWARDS LOVE CHILD  —  UPDATE: The NATIONAL ENQUIRER is revealing new details about the political scoop we broke yesterday - the secret meeting between Vice Presidential candidate John Edwards and Rielle Hunter.  —  A team of ENQUIRER reporters caught the married ex-senator visiting …