Election 2012: Barack Obama 42%, Ron Paul 41%  —  Pit maverick Republican Congressman Ron Paul against President Obama in a hypothetical 2012 election match-up, and the race is - virtually dead even.  —  A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of likely voters finds Obama with 42% support and Paul with 41% of the vote.

Sen. Mark Warner: Mitch McConnell 'either doesn't understand or chooses not to understand'  —  When Sen. Mitch McConnell said that the Senate financial-regulation bill meant “endless taxpayer-funded bailouts for big Wall Street banks,” he was, knowingly or not, taking aim at a policy …

Yes, 47% of Households Owe No Taxes.  Look Closer.  —  Forty-seven percent.  —  That's the portion of American households that owe no income tax for 2009.  The number is up from 38 percent in 2007, and it has become a popular talking point on cable television and talk radio.

Palin Spends More De-Icing Planes Than For Candidates  —  Ex-AK Gov. Sarah Palin (R) spent more money to de-ice her private jets than she did donating money to candidates during the first 3 months of the year, according to new filings made with the FEC.  —  The filings show Palin's political wing …

Anthony Weiner Goes Viral  —  Congressman Anthony Weiner bounded into a DJ booth at a fashionable Lower East Side bar one recent Wednesday night, grabbed the microphone with his left hand and unleashed his inner Borscht Belt.  —  “Every single moment that we are stroking our beards and gazing …

Arianna huffs about overbooked celebs at WHCD  —  Like a Real Housewife of New Jersey, Arianna Huffington was flipping tables, well, at least metaphorically.  —  Because like most media organizations that placed a bid for White House Correspondents dinner tables, the Huffington Post founder didn't get her way.

How Tweet It Is!:  Library Acquires Entire Twitter Archive  —  Have you ever sent out a “tweet” on the popular Twitter social media service?  Congratulations: Your 140 characters or less will now be housed in the Library of Congress.  —  That's right.  Every public tweet, ever …

Andy Stern: The exit interview  —  Andy Stern is the president of SEIU, a service employees union with 2.2 million members.  He led the breakaway unions that split from the AFL-CIO and formed Change to Win, and he's been a key political player during the Obama era, visiting the White House more than any other individual.

Bernanke to Unemployed: Drop Dead  —  Ben Bernanke's economic forecast indicates a dire future for the currently unemployed and also for young Americans who'll be graduating from school this spring and next: … That sounds right to me.  And if Congress asked me to give my forecast, that's what I would give.

Our Fill-in-the-Blank Constitution  —  AS the Senate awaits the nomination of a new Supreme Court justice, a frank discussion is needed on the proper role of judges in our constitutional system.  For 30 years, conservative commentators have persuaded the public that conservative judges apply the law …

Corrupt K Street Lobbyists Set Up A New Blue Dog Think Tank To Undermine Working Families  —  Blue Dogs are often most reviled for crossing the aisle and voting with Republicans on key issues like healthcare reform and financial reform.  Last November, when 39 Democrats voted against healthcare reform, for example, 25 were Blue Dogs.

Terry Gross: What I Read  —  How do other people deal with the torrent of information that pours down on us all?  Do they have some secret?  Perhaps.  We are asking various journalists who seem well-informed to describe their media diets.  This is from an exchange with Terry Gross …

Three more things we learned about Obamacare after it passed  —  “[W]e have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it,” said Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., as she rushed headlong toward passing President Obama's health care reform bill.  —  The idea was to pass something — Anything!

Mike Huckabee Blasts Student Newspaper for ‘Sensationalizing’ Comments on Gay Marriage  —  ABC News' Huma Khan reports: In an unusual battlefront, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee is embroiled in a heated war of words with a college newspaper after telling a student reporter that it is …

Arizona Clears Strict Immigration Bill  —  Arizona lawmakers on Tuesday passed one of the toughest pieces of immigration-enforcement legislation in the country, which would make it a violation of state law to be in the U.S. without proper documentation.  —  It would also grant police the power …

Jane Mayer's Disaster  —  With her recent review of my book, Courting Disaster, Jane Mayer may have done a service to future generations of public servants.  The week her article appeared in The New Yorker, former CIA director Mike Hayden handed it out in his class at George Mason University's School …