NBC/WSJ Poll: McCain halves Obama's lead  —  Obama up three points; still hasn't convinced some Clinton backers  —  WASHINGTON - With just days before the vice-presidential announcements, the political conventions and the final sprint to Election Day, Republican Sen. John McCain has cut Democrat …

WSJ/NBC News Poll: McCain Running a Negative Campaign  —  Susan Davis reports on the presidential race.  —  By a nearly six-to-one margin, voters say Republican presidential candidate John McCain is running a negative campaign against his Democratic rival, Barack Obama, according to the latest Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll.

Family, hospital confirm Stephanie Tubbs Jones' death  —  U.S. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones' family and officials at Huron Hospital have announced that the five-term congresswoman has died.  —  She was 58.  —  This is the statement:

Ohio congresswoman Tubbs Jones hospitalized  —  (CNN) — Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones of Ohio — a Democratic superdelegate and one of Hillary Clinton's most ardent supporters — was hospitalized in critical condition Wednesday after suffering an aneurysm, the hospital said.

US Rep. Tubbs Jones of Ohio dies after hemorrhage  —  EAST CLEVELAND, Ohio (AP) — A Cleveland Clinic official says Democratic U.S. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones of Ohio has died.  —  Clinic spokeswoman Eileen Sheil says Tubbs Jones died at 6:12 p.m. Wednesday after suffering a brain hemorrhage caused …

Clinton creates ‘whip team’ to quell anti-Obama protests  —  In an unusual move, Hillary Clinton's staff is creating a 40-member “whip team” at the Denver Democratic convention to ensure that her supporters don't engage in embarrassing anti-Obama demonstrations during the floor vote on her nomination …

On Those National Polls  —  The Obama campaign has two disadvantages when it comes to spinning reporters about poll numbers.  —  One is an us-versus-the-establishment mentality that has, at times, served to protect the campaign from the ill-winds of fashionable opinion: last summer, the national press all but wrote Obama's obituary.