Hillary Clinton further seized on the opening provided by Barack Obama's "bitter" remarks, telling a crowd in Indiana that she herself is no stranger to guns.

"You know, my dad took me out behind the cottage that my grandfather built on a little lake called Lake Winola outside of Scranton and taught be how to shoot when I was a little girl," said Clinton.

"You know, some people now continue to teach their children and their grandchildren. It's part of culture. It's part of a way of life. People enjoy hunting and shooting because it's an important part of who they are. Not because they are bitter."

She later added, however, that she is not herself an expert with firearms: "As I told you, my dad taught me how to shoot behind our cottage. I have gone hunting. I am not a hunter. But I have gone hunting."

Barack Obama now says that "I deeply regret" offending anyone who might have been offended by the phrasing of his words about small-town values and economic frustrations, a step back from his more forceful rebuttal to his critics yesterday

From an interview with the Winston-Salem Journal:

"Well look, if there - obviously, if I worded things in a way that made people offended, I deeply regret that. But the underlying truth of what I said remains, which is simply that people who have seen their way of life upended because of economic distress are frustrated and rightfully so. And I hear it all the time when I visit these communities. People say they feel as if nobody is paying attention or listening to them and that is something - that is one of the reasons I am running for president. I saw this when I first started off as a community organizer and the steel plants had closed, and I was working with churches in communities that had fallen on hard times. And they felt angry and frustrated."

Updated below.

Hillary chief strategist Geoffrey Garin dramatically raised the stakes in the battle over Barack Obama's comments about small-town America, saying in an interview that they would be "damaging" to him in a general election, could set back the Democratic Party's efforts to reach heartland voters, and should be something that super-delegates consider when deciding whom to support.

"These are the kinds of attitudes that have created a gulf between Democrats and lots of small-town and heartland voters that we've been working very, very hard to bridge," Garin told me today in his first public comments about the flap.

"I saw Senator Obama's comments as a step backward to building those kinds of bridges," Garin continued, saying the following of the impact that the comments could have in a general election:

"They will be damaging. And they could be significantly so...I don't think that the kinds of attitudes that Senator Obama expressed are consistent with Democrats doing what we need to do to win a general election."

In the wide-ranging interview, Garin also:

* Suggested that the comments were "completely fair game" for use in an ad, and an "important topic"

* Said that he would "hope" that the Clinton campaign would point to the comments in their efforts to persuade super-delegates to back her over Obama

* Said that Mark Penn felt "embarrassed" and felt like he'd been "taken to the woodshed," and allowed that Penn "did a dumb thing"

* Said that while Hillary's reputation "isn't going to get any worse," Obama's "isn't going to get any better"

* Said that Obama had implied that working-class people are "small-minded"

"Working class people in all parts of America are frustrated, but they are not small-minded in the way that Senator Obama's comments conveyed," Garin said.

Read more »

The skirmishing around Obama's remarks about small town America intensified this morning, with Hillary hammering them as "elitist and out of touch" -- language strikingly similar to that used by McCain's spokesperson yesterday.

Hillary also used the remarks to pivot over to a discussion of her own "Midwestern values," and strikingly, she even suggested implicitly that she's more respectful of people's faith than Obama, a member of the United Church of Christ. "Americans who believe in God believe it's a matter of personal faith," she said...

Meanwhile, Obama this morning mounted a spirited defense of his comments. He sought to use the political fight to renew his call for a new politics, dismissing the fight as a "typical political flare-up" and adding that we have to get past such "distractions."

Obama also that he'd spoken the truth in saying folks are "bitter." Notably, he softened his language about religion, saying that it's understandable that some "take comfort from their faith."

But he appeared to concede that he'd misspoken, saying: "I didn't say it as well as I should have...but what is absolutely true is that people don't feel like they're being listened to."...

Full transcripts after the jump.

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The ever-entertaining New Jersey Senate race just got a lot less funny today, with the Republicans finding what may well be a serious candidate. Andy Unanue, whose candidacy was ruined by allegations of chronic drunkenness, dropped out of the race and was able to substitute the name of a new candidate in place of his own on the primary ballot: Former Congressman Dick Zimmer.

However, Zimmer will still have his own problems. He previously ran for the Senate in 1996, losing by a 10-point margin, and then failed to regain his House seat in a squeaker of a race in 2000. Since them, he's worked in Washington as a lobbyist — and the eventual Democratic opponent, whether it's incumbent Sen. Frank Lautenberg or one of his primary challengers, will be sure to use that against him should he win the GOP nomination.

Here, from Obama spokesperson Tommy Vietor, is Obama's response to Hillary and McCain's criticism of his comment about small-town America:

"Senator Obama has said many times in this campaign that Americans are understandably upset with their leaders in Washington for saying anything to win elections while failing to stand up to the special interests and fight for an economic agenda that will bring jobs and opportunity back to struggling communities. And if John McCain wants a debate about who's out of touch with the American people, we can start by talking about the tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans that he once said offended his conscience but now wants to make permanent."

No mention of Hillary -- only McCain.

Late Update: Here's video of Hillary's hit on Obama:

Late Late Update: HuffPo has posted a full transcript of Obama's remarks.

Very Late Update: Here's Obama's response at a rally in Indiana, mentioning both Hillary and McCain, but mainly McCain:

Hillary has just taken a hard shot at Obama over some comments he was reported to have made about small town America, saying of Obama that "Pennsylvanians don't need a President who looks down on them."

According to The Huffington Post, Obama, at an event with some of his wealthier California backers, said the following about life in hardscrabble small town America.

"You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them," Obama said. "And they fell through the Clinton Administration, and the Bush Administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not."

"And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."

Hillary, in comments to reporters just moments ago in Philadelphia, seized on Obama's use of the word "bitter," and said (transcript sent over by her campaign):

"I saw in the media it's being reported that my opponent said that the people of Pennsylvania who faced hard times are bitter. Well, that's not my experience.

"As I travel around Pennsylvania, I meet people who are resilient, who are optimistic, who are positive, who are rolling up their sleeves. They are working hard everyday for a better future, for themselves and their children.

"Pennsylvanians don't need a president who looks down on them, they need a president who stands up for them, who fights for them, who works hard for your futures, your jobs, your families."

A spokesperson for McCain has also taken a shot at Obama over the comment, saying it "shows an elitism and condescension towards hardworking Americans that is nothing short of breathtaking."

The Obama camp is being mum on this thus far. We'll see whether the Friday night news black-hole smothers this story.

Late Update: Obama responds, and doesn't mention a certain someone.

New Zogby numbers in Pennsylvania: Hillary leads Obama by only four points, 47%-43%. Eight percent are undecided.

A key finding from the poll that may explain why it's close: While more than half of voters say the economy is their top concern, Hillary's edge is only five points -- 41%-36% -- on the question of which is most likely to help the respondent's financial situation.

The poll also found that Hillary's advantage was statistically insignificant on the question of which would be most likely to help the middle class.

Full poll here.

Okay, this McCain-Soros story just keeps on giving.

McCain sent out a fundraising letter yesterday attacking a planned third-party Dem effort because it's being funded by George Soros, a reliable villain for many on the right. But as I reported below, a group that McCain co-chaired also was perfectly happy to benefit from Soros' generosity.

The group, a good-government outfit called the Reform Institute, received $150,000 from Soros in 2003 -- when McCain was its honorary co-chair and McCain's current campaign manager (the same guy who signed yesterday's fund-raising letter) was its president.

But it gets still better.

I've now learned that in 2002, Soros' charitable foundation, the Open Society Institute, gave $300,000 in grants to various groups that were defending the Arizona senator's campaign finance law against legal challenges to it.

An OSI spokesperson, Laura Silber, confirms to me that Soros' foundation gave $300,000 to the Brennan Center specifically for use defending McCain-Feingold. Brennan subsequently distributed that sum to various groups fighting on behalf of the McCain-sponsored law.

So by my count, Soros has contributed a total of $450,000 either to a group co-chaired by McCain or to defending McCain's pet legislation.

There was nothing wrong with Soros' money then, presumably. Yet now the McCain campaign is attacking a fledgling Dem effort because it's taking money from...Soros.

Doesn't get more mavericky than that.

Asked to comment, McCain spokesperson Brian Rogers emails: "This just in: George Soros' charitable foundation gave money to push campaign finance reform, the spirit of which he’s now clearly violating with a $40 million partisan attack ad campaign."

Change to Win, the coalition of unions backing Obama, is upping the pressure on the Hillary campaign to dump Mark Penn, releasing a new statement demanding that she "sever all ties" with Penn and launching an online pressure campaign designed to force her to do just that.

The latest statement ties Penn directly to "triangulation," a word folks obviously associate with the Clintons, and blames it directly for the decline of living conditions for the American worker.

“"High-priced consultants like Mark Penn who shape our laws to suit their clients are poisoning our political system and robbing voters of their faith in our democratic process," the statement says. "Triangulation has been the strangulation of the hopes and dreams of American workers...There is no place at the table for union-busters."

There's no evidence that the Obama campaign is orchestrating Change to Win's continuing pressure on Hillary, but it's obvious that Penn, and Hillary's refusal to get rid of him once and for all, is a gift that keeps on giving for the Obama camp.

The question, though, is whether this latest broadside represents enough of an advancement of the assault on Penn to merit significantly more coverage.

Separately, The Huffington Post has some brutal quotes about Penn from Hillary-ite Paul Begala.

Full Change to Win statement after the jump.

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This is a fun one: John McCain is attacking a new pro-Dem third party group because it's being partly funded by George Soros -- even though a group McCain co-chaired took one hundred and fifty thousand dollars from Soros, too.

Yesterday, McCain sent out a fundraising email blasting the new Soros-funded Dem effort.

"George Soros the `liberal megadonor' is at it again," McCain campaign manager Rick Davis wrote, sounding the "Soros" alarm in a way guaranteed to get right-wingers to open their wallets. "He and his group of billionaire left-wing Democrats have pledged $40 million dollars of soft money to smear John McCain in a national television ad campaign."

But it turns out that Soros' charitable foundation, the Open Society Institute, gave $150,000 to a group called the Reform Institute, which is dedicated to campaign-finance reform and transparency in government, an OSI spokesperson confirms. The grant was made in 2003.

McCain was honorary co-chair of the Reform Institute starting in 2001, when the group was founded, and held that post until 2005.

It gets better.

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Obama, today in Indiana:

“I think it was surprising to me that a high ranking, if not the highest ranking, member of Senator Clinton’s team would be engaged in business activities and lobbying that was directly contrary to the position Senator Clinton had taken,” he said.

But if one of his advisors had done the same thing?

“Let me put it this way: I’m not surprised that Senator Clinton found herself in an uncomfortable position as a consequence. And I know that if staff of mine were putting me in that kind of position, I would get rid of them.”

Hillary spokesperson Jay Carson's response:

“When Sen Obama’s top economic advisor told the Canadian government not to take his anti-NAFTA rhetoric seriously, he and his staff misleadingly denied that the meeting ever occurred, and then took absolutely no action,” Carson said in a statement. “It’s good to know he has a higher standard for our campaign than his own.”

That last barb was a pretty good line, Jay, though I'm sure lots of folks will be objecting to the Goolsbee-Penn comparison, since they're hardly of comparable stature within the campaigns and were engaged in different types of activities.

Late Update: Oh, and Penn was getting paid; Goolsbee wasn't.

Late Late Update: It's also worth noting, however, that Goolsbee was reported (though it's been disputed) to have been characterizing Obama's position, while Penn wasn't characterizing Hillary's position. Meanwhile, here's video of Obama:

Yesterday on the stump Hillary reiterated her opposition to the Colombia trade agreement -- and in the process, she laughed.

This, naturally, pricked up the ears of lots of folks in our political press corps, who derive great enjoyment from taking note of Hillary's laugh...

MSNBC:

Hillary's Laugh Is Back

PITTSBURGH -- Clinton can't shake questions surrounding her stance on trade and her husband's differing views on the matter. Today, she responded with a hearty laugh -- the kind once criticized and mocked by pundits and the media.

CNN:

Clinton laughs off Colombia questions

PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania (CNN) – Hillary Clinton used her trademark laugh Thursday to deflect a question about the $800,000 her husband earned in 2005 giving speeches for a Bogota-based group that supports the Colombia free trade agreement — the same trade deal she currently opposes.

The Washington Post:

Questions on Trade Agreement Bring Back the Laugh

PITTSBURGH, Pa. -- Asked about her husband's receipt of almost $1 million from a group that backs a trade deal with Colombia that she opposes, Sen. Hillary Clinton turned to a tactic she had used often early in her campaign, though not recently: laughing off the question.

Great minds...

I haven't seen this analysis done before, and it's worth a look. The Washington Post examines Obama's astonishing fundraising success in detail and finds that while Obama has reaped the benefits of what is effectively a small donor revolution, his corralling of huge numbers of givers has been partly enabled by a team of wealthy "bundlers":

Seventy-nine "bundlers," five of them billionaires, have tapped their personal networks to raise at least $200,000 each. They have helped the campaign recruit more than 27,000 donors to write checks for $2,300, the maximum allowed. Donors who have given more than $200 account for about half of Obama's total haul, which stands at nearly $240 million.

This doesn't change the significance of Obama's fundraising accomplishment; it merely explains it in a more probing way than we've seen yet. The whole thing is worth a read.

This morning, Obama will call for "passage of his legislation to require corporations to hold a nonbinding shareholders vote on compensation packages offered to executives," according to his campaign.

Obama is set to hold a press availability in Indiana to discuss his proposal -- and plans to take on John McCain over the issue, setting the stage for a general election showdown over the economy and the GOP's hands-off approach to it.

"I know Senator McCain had some sharp words the other day about what some CEOs are getting paid," Obama will say. "And I was glad to hear it. But when he’s had the chance to do something about this problem, he’s opted for continuing the do-nothing approach of the Bush years."

Obama's full prepared remarks after the jump.

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During a campaign stop today in Indiana, Bill Clinton defended his wife's reputation on the Bosnia flap, claiming it was all a product of a misstatement at 11 p.m.

"This is a big deal to her," Bill said. "Some of you may have seen that she took a terrible beating in the press for a few days because, she was exhausted at 11 o'clock at night and she started talking about Bosnia and she misstated the circumstances under which she landed in Bosnia. Did you all see all that?"

"And, oh, they acted like she was practically Mata Hari, you know? Just making up all this stuff," he added, then going on to describe just how dangerous a place Bosnia was.

Sleep deprivation doesn't completely explain Hillary's series of comments. But either way, the Clinton camp might still not be too happy having the story pushed back into the headlines.

The new NRCC ad in a Louisiana special election for the House has an interesting motif against Democratic nominee Don Cazayoux (prounced CAZH-you) — some forced schoolyard-style word-play around his name:

"Cazayoux, 'Tax You,'" the announcer says, not quite getting the pronunciation just right. "Hard to spell, harder to pay for."

Of course, there's a pretty thin record of scoring political points by making a joke of someone's French surname in Louisiana. But we'll see how it plays this time on May 3rd.

Dick Cheney, in an interview today, fiddles with his deck of cards and fingers the one with the big "W" on it:

“I've watched what's going on on the Democratic side with great interest, and sort of blowing hot and cold in terms of who is going to win -- whether it is going to be Sen. Clinton or Sen. Obama,’’ Cheney noted in a telephone interview with conservative talk show host, Sean Hannity, today.

"I thought the controversy over Rev. Wright was remarkable," Cheney said. “I thought some of the things he said were absolutely appalling. And, you know, I haven't gotten into the business of trying to judge how Sen. Obama dealt with it, or didn't deal with it, but I really, I think -- like most Americans -- I was stunned at what the Reverend was preaching in his church and then putting up on his website.’"

Worth noting that Cheney appears to have brought up Wright himself.

It's awfully kind of Cheney to refrain from judging Obama's handling of the Wright affair. But I think I'm on pretty safe ground predicting that Cheney's reticence -- and that of much of the Republican Party, with the "honorable" exception of McCain -- will suddenly vanish should Obama become the nominee.

Does Obama have trouble among so called "beer-track" voters (a.k.a. blue collar whites) against McCain? Yes — but conversely, Hillary has just as much trouble against McCain with the "wine-track" crowd.

That's what a new Gallup poll released today finds.

McCain beats Barack Obama 46%-40% among voters with only a high school education or less, while Obama pulls ahead among voters with some college all the way up to a post-grad degree. Meanwhile, Hillary win the high school or less vote by a 48%-43% margin, then proceeds to lose the college-educated at all levels.

The interesting part is that Gallup has had very similar top-line results for the two Dems' trial heats against McCain, but it turns out they take remarkably different routes to get there.

The new AP/Ipsos poll reveals that Barack Obama has weathered some damage since his February peak, before the Wright controversy dragged him down in March.

Back in late February, Obama led McCain 51%-41% — but now it's a 45%-45% tie. Perhaps most notably, McCain has taken a lead among independents, a core group for Obama.

For her part, Hillary Clinton has a slim lead of 48%-45% over McCain, while Obama continues to lead Hillary for the nomination by 46%-43%. But the Democratic race has continued to take a toll on party unity: About a third of Clinton supporters say they'd back McCain over Obama, and a quarter of Obama supporters would pick McCain over Hillary.

And around and around we go: Here's Obama's new radio ad responding to Hillary's ad from yesterday accusing Obama's earlier ad of being misleading because it said Obama doesn't take money from oil companies.

The new ad -- which you can listen to here -- seeks to persuade the blue collar and lower-middle-class voters who comprise a key Hillary constituency that Obama, too, feels their economic pain:

"Across Pennsylvania, we're living the problems: An economy in shambles. Families struggling. Gas prices close to $4 a gallon. What's Hillary's answer? Misleading negative ads."

Recent polls show Hillary with a double-digit lead among Pennsylvania voters who cite the economy as a driving concern, but Obama has shown that he's been able to start making gains among some of her core constituencies in the state.

Late Update: Full transcript after the jump.

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This passed unnoticed, but John Edwards popped up and spoke out publicly the other day -- he penned a letter to the editor of The New York Times, demanding that the paper and other media be more accurate when it comes to counting our wounded in Iraq.

In his letter, he pointed out that the Pentagon has two sets of numbers for counting the wounded -- a weekly stat, which is incomplete because it leaves out those who became ill and required air transport from the war zone, and another monthly report that has complete numbers.

"After five years, it is time for respected news organizations to use the complete number," Edwards wrote. "And every day we should honor those who have been hurt. That number is 60,645 and rising."

Edwards was hitting on an issue that few are aware of but has great importance to veterans and some Capitol Hill staffers working on their behalf.

Whoever you back for president, and whatever you thought of Edwards' candidacy, something was undeniably lost when Edwards called it quits. These days, the only talk you hear about Edwards in political circles is about whether he'll endorse, but he's still out there, plugging away on the issues he cares about.

Here's a fun little flap out of California: It's already been reported that the Hillary campaign is leaving behind some unpaid bills, but now they may be soon getting a call from a collections agency.

It seems Bill Clinton campaigned for Hillary at the University of California's Davis campus earlier this year -- and since then his campaign has only paid a bit more than half the $11,000 it owes the school for the event.

TPM Reader JL sends in this little article about the flap from The Reporter of Vacaville. The paper reports that the school has now laid down a deadline of May 10th to get its money -- and if it doesn't, university officials are threatning, they're sending the matter to collections.

As TPM's Eric Kleefeld puts it, "forget the polls -- the Clinton campaign is about to get screwed on its credit rating."

CNN has just released an average it has done of recent polls in Pennsylvania, and if the findings are accurate, things are looking pretty rough for her in the state:

Sen. Hilary Clinton's lead over Sen. Barack Obama in the crucial primary state of Pennsylvania has dwindled to 4 points, a CNN average of recent polls calculated Thursday shows...

Recent CNN "poll of polls" suggest the race in Pennsylvania is tightening before the state's April 22 primary. A poll of polls calculated two days ago showed Clinton with a 6 point lead in Pennsylvania, and a poll of polls last Friday showed her on top by 11 points.

Hillary now leads 46%-42%. That's a drop of seven points in Hillary's average lead -- in just under a week. Obama's three-to-one spending advantage on ads in the state may be paying off.

Montana governor Brian Schweitzer is sometimes mentioned as a possible running-mate for Barack Obama. And thus far he's neutral in the presidential race.

But in an interview with ABC News, he was surprisingly critical of the Illinois Senator's policies...

While Schweitzer has not proposed his own universal health care plan in Montana, he believes Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., is right to have endorsed a mandate on the national level.

By not requiring individuals to purchase insurance, Schweitzer believes Obama's plan to forbid insurance companies to deny coverage because of pre-existing conditions will lead to healthy people opting out and sick people opting in.

"You've got to get everyone in the system," said Schweitzer.

He is dismayed that Obama cast a vote for President Bush's 2005 energy bill while regularly criticizing the president on the issue.

"Sounds like Senate-speak," said Schweitzer.

Montana votes on June 3rd, the last day of voting. Schweitzer's criticism won't affect his choice of whom to back, since he said he'll endorse whoever wins his state. But it's unusual to hear such blunt talk from a neutral party -- one who has such a high profile in a state that's soon to vote -- about the likely nominee.

Hillary picks up a Pennsylvania super-delegate, former Pittsburgh Mayor Sophie Masloff, her second in the state since Rep. John Murtha endorsed her last month.

Meanwhile, the Obama camp says he's nabbed another super-del of his own today: Utah Democratic Party Chair Wayne Holland.

As of right now, CNN's super-delegate count says Hillary has 243 and Obama has 215, though it's unclear whether that includes today's new announcements.

A new Rasmussen poll of New Mexico, where GOP Senator Pete Domenici is retiring, shows Rep. Tom Udall (D) with significant leads over both potential Republican nominees, Reps. Steve Pearce and Heather Wilson:

Udall (D) 54%, Pearce (R) 40%
Udall (D) 56%, Wilson (R) 36%

Among independent voters, Udall leads Pearce by 12 points, and beats Wilson by 19 points — perhaps owing to Wilson's involvement in the U.S. Attorney scandal damaging her credibility.

David Brock, the one-time conservative media man and now the liberal founder of Media Matters, is starting up a proposed multi-million effort to go after John McCain — specifically seeing a need to be filled as the Democratic race goes on longer than expected.

"A void that might be filled, while the Democrats fight it out, by the press is not going to be filled, because the press is in love with John McCain," Brock said. "It's what McCain is allowed to say without being challenged by facts that will show him to have said something different in the past."

During an appearance on Good Morning America, Colin Powell described himself as undecided voter but also had some kind words for Barack Obama — a sign that the former Bush Administration cabinet member might cross over and endorse a Democrat this year:

Powell's answer to the critique that Obama lacks executive experience: "He didn't have a lot of experience in running a presidential campaign, did he."

On the other hand, maybe Obama wouldn't want Powell's support, in light of his reported involvement in approving the use of torture.

A new Time poll of Pennsylvania gives Hillary Clinton a narrow lead in the Pennsylvania primary, with a fairly high undecided number: Clinton 44%, Obama 38%.

The poll also shows that the rough Democratic race has taken a toll on party unity, at least for now — 26% of clinton supporters would be more likely to back McCain if Obama wins the nomination, along with 16% of Obama supporters if Clinton gets the nod.

Elizabeth has stepped back a bit from yesterday's statement that she has more confidence in Hillary Clinton than Barack Obama on the issue of health care, saying instead that she and John Edwards could be best effective at this point as "honest brokers" on issues they care about, rather than endorsing any candidate.

She also denied that a reported conversation with Barack Obama turned them off from his candidacy, but did acknowledge some differences: "And where there are differences, we talked about those differences and why I believed John's was right."

A new Rasmussen poll of Alaska shows Sen. Ted Stevens — a key Senate appropriate and TPMmuckraker all-star — in serious danger of losing re-election after nearly 40 years in office. The numbers: Stevens (R) 46%, Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich (D) 45%.

Due to the various investigations against Stevens and his family, his favorable rating is now only 50% while his unfavorable number is 47% — meaning that Senate Republicans could have yet another seat to worry about during a bad year.

A new InsiderAdvantage poll in Pennsylvania gives Hillary Clinton a ten-point lead, up from a two-point lead last week:

Clinton 48% (+3)
Obama 38% (-5)

From the internals: Clinton leads 54%-33% among whites, and Obama is ahead 62%-22% with blacks. Clinton leads 55%-30% among women, while Obama has a 47%-42% edge with men.

Obama goes up in Pennsylvania with yet another ad, this one featuring him promising to take on the special interests -- the pharmaceutical industry, in this case -- and "put an end to the game playing" in D.C.

The spot, like his others in Pennsylvania, shows him talking sense to a small roomful of nodding voters rather than rallying big arenas with uplifting oratory, in keeping with his emphasis on more intimate campaign events in the state...

Yesterday we brought you our roundup of the Senate races, showing that the Democrats are poised to expand their majority in that chamber. Now we've taken a look at the overall picture for the House.

The verdict? More or less the same — Dems are poised for major gains.

Democrats have only 17-27 House seats at any real risk.

By contrast, the GOP is going to have to defend between 25-33 seats.

Just as we did yesterday, we examined the ratings compiled by non-partisan sources, such as Larry Sabato, Charlie Cook and CQ.

Viewed as a whole, the outlook is pretty amazing. While history has taught us that a party that wins a "wave" election (as the Dems did in 2006) is poised for some losses two years later, we judge that Dems are in a position to expand their majority by anywhere from five to 20 seats.

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After a FactCheck.org analysis declared a recent Obama ad "misleading" for saying that he doesn't take money from oil companies, the Hillary campaign hit the radio waves in Pennsylvania today with its own ad attacking Obama's ad.

You can listen to the ad here.

FactCheck.org and the Hillary ad both point out that it's not legal for companies to donate to candidates, but the point of the initial Obama ad is that Obama doesn't take money from PACs, which is the way corporations channel money to campaigns.

Hillary's ad also points out that he voted for the Bush-Cheney energy bill and that she voted against it, and her ad has this little twist on her campaign's frequent suggestion that Obama is all talk, no action: "It's time for a president who takes on the oil companies in real life -- not just on TV."

Full script of the Hillary ad here.

Snarkity snarkity snark. Looks like the McCain campaign made a bit of a boo-boo in this Web ad...

"Johm" McCain, eh? As the irrepressible Instaputz, who first caught this, puts it: "this might explain his problems distinguishing between Iraq and Iran."

I'd only add that McCain isn't allowed to have some other dude funding his ads, even if it is his demented twin brother. Looks like we've nabbed him in a campaign finance violation here.

Today's Gallup tracking poll gives Barack Obama a ten-point advantage over Hillary Clinton, matching his previous record lead. The numbers, compared to yesterday:

Obama 51% (+0)
Clinton 41% (-2)

In the general election match-ups, Barack Obama has taken a statistically insignificant lead over John McCain, while Hillary Clinton is tying McCain exactly:

Obama (D) 46%, McCain (R) 44%
McCain (R) 46%, Clinton (D) 46%

Obama took a one-point lead against McCain yesterday, his first edge of any kind in Gallup since the Jeremiah Wright story became a real controversy for him — a sign that he might have dealt with it successfully, or at least that it's been overshadowed by other issues for now.

This is just astonishing:

Barack Obama has spent a record breaking $60 million to run more than 100,000 political television ads in pursuit of the Democratic presidential nomination, a new analysis conducted for CNN shows.

In contrast, John Kerry ran a little more than 19,000 TV ads four years ago in his successful bid for the Democratic nomination, according to TNS Media Intelligence/CMAG, CNN’s consultant on political television advertising spending...

Clinton, who trails Obama in fundraising by about $60 million, has run just over 60,000 TV ads in her bid for the White House.

Obama has run more than five times as many ads as Kerry did. Hillary has run three times as many. Of course, the primary has dragged on far longer, too.

Keep in mind that this ad blitz is funded largely by what is basically a small donor revolution. Obama is now apparently laying the groundwork to possibly opt out of public financing, saying that the Internet has effectively created a "parallel public financing system."

It can be argued -- and Obama likely will argue -- that his success in bringing small donors into the process has proven at least as democratizing as public financing has, if not more so.

As you may have heard by now, a Federal probe has concluded that Ned Lamont's campaign did not bring down Joe Lieberman's campaign Web site with a hack attack, as the Lieberman camp charged on Election Day 2006.

What really happened was that the Lieberman camp's server failed.

This is vindication for Lamont's Internet director, Tim Tagaris (his picture is here). So I checked in with Tagaris, who as you might expect had a few things to say about this.

"The sad thing is, Lieberman himself repeated the charge all day in an attempt to discredit his opponents and drive down Ned's primary vote," Tagaris instant messages to me. "It was broadcast on every cable news channel, and papers from The New York Times to the Hartford Courant wrote about it."

"And he got away with it -- who cares what's reported today," Tagaris continues. "He won the election based on a pattern of lies loudly repeated and dutifully stenographed."

"Now maybe someone will run an investigation into Joe Lieberman's repeated claim that no one wants to end the war more than he does," Tagaris concludes.

It'll be interesting to see if all the cable and print outlets that went nuts over the Lieberman campaign's accusations that day will take note of the fact that the Lamont campaign -- and Tagaris -- have now been cleared.

Late Update: Lieberman spokesperson Dan Gerstein, who also echoed the Election Day attack on the Lamont campaign, sends over this response:

“After the Lieberman campaign website went down the day before the 2006 Democratic primary, we were told by our website administrator that there was clear evidence of an outside effort to disrupt our site, and that the administrator was so certain that the site had been attacked that he was willing to swear to it in a legal affidavit. Based on his assessment, and the fact that there had been at least one prior attack on the campaign’s website, the campaign asked the Justice Department to investigate the incident to find out what happened and determine if a crime had been committed. The Justice Department has shared the results of their investigation with us, the Senator appreciates their diligence and accepts their findings, and we consider the matter closed.”

Hillary's big and very high-profile fundraiser tonight -- which will feature a performance by Elton John at Radio City -- will bring in $2.5 million, Hillary finance chair Hassan Nemazee confirms to me.

The number vastly exceeds some expectations -- an AP story last week, for instance, predicted that the event was "expected to bring in more than $1.5 million," which is nearly a million dollars short of the actual tally.

Nemazee tells me that the event, which will draw 6,000 people, has sold out. "We are in our fifteen month of fundraising, and to do two and a half million is extraordinary," Nemazee says, not without some justification.

Now, none of this changes the fact that Obama, who continues to break records with his astonishingly successful fundraising, will badly outspend Hillary in the remaining states. He is outspending Hillary three-to-one in Pennsylvania right now, for instance.

But Hillary's fundraising numbers, though lower than Obama's, would appear to demonstrate that many of her donors haven't given up on this race yet.

Nemazee confirms, for instance, that an event in Los Angeles last week brought in a couple hundred thousand dollars, and adds that he's secured $50,000 in commitments for another fundraiser in Pittsburgh starring Chelsea Clinton, and another couple hundred thousand dollars in commitments for an event in Houston on the 24th.

A new survey of Pennsylvania from Public Policy Polling (D) gives Hillary Clinton a narrow lead, after this pollster had given Obama slight edge last week:

Clinton 46% (+3)
Obama 43% (-3)

From the internals: Clinton leads 53%-36% among whites, while Obama is ahead 74%-17% with blacks.

Another number that may help explain the Obama camp backing away from any calls for Hillary to drop out: 52% of Pennsylvania Dems say they are not concerned that the long primary campaign will hurt the party's chances against John McCain, and Hillary is ahead 50%-40% with that group.

The latest advertising numbers are in from Pennsylvania, and they show just how much Barack Obama has been using his fundraising advantage — Obama has spent $3.6 million on television ads in the key primary state, compared to only $1.3 million from Clinton.

Hillary needs an overwhelming win in this state in order to make a dent in Obama's delegate margin, and it obviously can't help her that she's being outspent by nearly 3-1 on TV.

Elizabeth Edwards praised Hillary Clinton's health plan this morning on ABC News, saying bluntly: "I just have more confidence in Senator Clinton's policy than Senator Obama's on this particular issue."

This statement from Elizabeth Edwards — done on the record, as opposed to background sources putting out the message — could be yet a further sign that the lack of a health mandate in Obama's plan is what is leading John Edwards to not endorse anybody.

Late Update: Here's the video:

Although Mark Penn is still involved in the Clinton campaign, his overall influence has reportedly diminished to the point where something notable has happened: On the campaign's internal conference calls, his ideas can be shot down.

"Every little ad and direct-mail and radio spot and speech had to have Mark's approval on it—he could look at everything he wanted," one staffer said. "That's no longer the case."

A new poll of Pennsylvania from Strategic Vision (R) shows Hillary Clinton still in the lead, but narrowly so. Here are the results, compared to last week:

Clinton 47% (-2)
Obama 42% (+1)

And the general election match-ups:

Clinton (D) 45%, McCain (R) 42%
McCain (R) 48%, Obama (D) 41%

Another Clinton ally is publicly going after Barack Obama over the Jeremiah Wright story, with former White House special counsel Lanny Davis writing a lengthy op-ed piece in the Wall St. Journal — a piece that questions Obama's electability in an apparent appeal to any super-delegates who might be reading.

"Attacking the motives of those who feel this discomfort about Senator Obama's response or nonresponse to Reverend Wright's comments is not just unfair and wrong," Davis writes. "It also misses the important electoral point about winning the general election in November: This issue is not going away."

Readers with long memories might remember Texas Republican Shelley Sekula-Gibbs, who briefly served as Tom DeLay's successor after she'd won the special election to succeed him but simultaneously lost for the full term. Sekula-Gibbs' brief tenure in the House was marked by the mass resignation of DeLay's former staffers, who quit rather than work for her for two months.

Well, we won't have Shelley to kick around anymore. Sekula-Gibbs was again running for the seat, hoping for a rematch with incumbent Democrat Nick Lampson. But in tonight's Texas primary runoffs, she lost 68%-32% to Pete Olson, a former aide to Sen. John Cornyn.

And by the way, be on the lookout for this one being a key race this Fall, perhaps the best chance the GOP has to take a seat away from the Dems — it went 64%-35% for President Bush in 2004, and went Democratic in 2006 due mostly to the bizarre circumstances of Tom DeLay's resignation.

As we reported earlier today, the Dems are looking at major gains in the Senate this fall — and today, the Dem in charge of making it happen laid out his view of the electoral map.

During a conference call with reporters, DSCC chief Chuck Schumer said that there are five states where they're ahead: Virginia, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Colorado and Alaska. Schumer also said that Dems were behind but had a shot in three blue states: Maine, Minnesota and Oregon.

And overall, he promised to run good candidates in a total of 17 out of 23 GOP seats that will be on the ballot this year — a sign that he plans on making a lot of use out of the DSCC's money advantages over the Republicans, by forcing them to play defense all over the map.

The GOP is defending nine — count 'em, nine — Senate seats in this fall's elections.

The Democrats are defending all of ... one.

That's the conclusion we reached after a close look at the map of Senate races this year — and it shows just how well-positioned the Dems are to expand their majority.

The presidential race has sucked up so much media oxygen that it's easy to forget that there's another bitter and high-stakes electoral showdown looming this fall: The Congressional races.

Here — according to our analysis of all the ratings compiled by non-partisan sources like National Journal, Larry Sabato, Charlie Cook and CQ — is a chart offering a snapshot of the sum total of races where a seat has a chance of changing hands ("(i)" identifies an incumbent"):

A rundown on the daunting odds the Republicans face — and the ripe opportunities Dems have — is after the jump.

Read more »

Many of you who have been following this race with Talmudic intensity will recognize the name Hari Sevugan -- he was Chris Dodd's spokesperson back in the last Ice Age when Dodd was still in the race.

Now Sevugan has joined the Obama campaign as part of the latter's efforts to beef up its communications team, which is taking more incoming fire than ever between Hillary and GOP nominee John McCain. On his first day, Sevugan is already out with an Obama campaign statement hitting Hillary for not cutting loose Mark Penn...

"Even though Senator Clinton said she'd distance herself from her chief strategist for meeting with the Colombian government, we later found out that he's still very much part of her strategy team. The comparison Senator Clinton tried to make today is laughable, but also typical of a candidate who has said one thing but done another this entire campaign."

Penn indeed will remain an "important" part of the Hillary campaign, as Hillary spokesperson Howard Wolfson confirmed today.

Late Late Update: I've revised the post to delete my error -- contrary to what I wrote earlier, Hillary herself did make the comparison between the Penn and Goolsbee situations.

Here at Election Central we've been keeping an eye on the increasingly raucous Jersey Senate race — and now the brawl is getting messier than ever, with most of the Democratic establishment trying to force heretic Congressman Rob Andrews to drop his long-shot effort to unseat incumbent Senator Frank Lautenberg.

The other six Dems in the state's delegation have put out a statement lambasting Andrews for even running, calling him a "regional candidate" and calling his campaign an "end run" around the party's nominating process, with no chance of success.

Of course, Andrews has a healthy level of support down in South Jersey, with party boss George Norcross ready to line up a lot of money for him — so don't exactly expect him to drop out any time soon.

Mark Penn isn't going anywhere.

On the Hillary campaign's conference call moments ago, Hillary spokesperson Howard Wolfson left zero doubt: Camp Hillary will not be heeding the Obama campaign's demand that they fire Penn completely.

Asked about reports that Penn is still participating on internal campaign strategy calls, Wolfson said, "I'm not going to send out a daily email about who's on which calls and who isn't," clarifying: "Mark is no longer senior strategist, but he will be playing a continuing role in strategy."

Pressed by a reporter to explain the difference between Penn's former and current status, Wolfson said: "The difference would be between the editor in chief of your newspaper and one who plays an important role at your newspaper."

He added that "anyone at a workplace" would understand "the difference between someone who is playing the key role" and "someone who is playing an important role."

So there you have it: Penn will continue playing an "important" role.

After leaving this to surrogates for a couple days, the Obama campaign is ratcheting up the pressure on onetime Hillary chief strategist to ax Mark Penn once and for all, in the apparent hope that keeping Penn front and center will weaken her grip on her base of blue collar voters in Pennsylvania and other remaining states.

On an Obama campaign conference call moments ago, the Obama camp rolled out high-profile labor supporter James Hoffa, the president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, who called on the Clinton camp to end Penn's association completely.

"You can't have a guy on your payroll who's lobbying for Colombia," Hoffa said, adding that it was time for her to "end his services completely." He blasted Penn for "taking money from a foreign nation" to boost the free trade agreement that "she says she's going to vote against."

Hoffa added that Penn was a continuing drain on Hillary's "credibility," claiming that Penn is "still calling the shots," which is certainly debatable -- while Penn is still playing a role, obviously, Geoff Garin has taken over as senior strategist.

One other interesting nugget from the call: Hoffa referred to some internal polling that he claimed showed that Obama's race was not resonating as an issue among union members.

The new SurveyUSA poll of Pennsylvania has some good news for Hillary Clinton. Unlike other polls that have the race narrowing, they have her expanding her lead versus a week ago:

Clinton 56% (+3)
Obama 38% (-3)

From the internals: Obama led 50%-43% among men last week, but now Hillary is ahead 48%-45%.

Clinton needs a landslide victory here in order to make any dent in Obama's delegate lead, and this poll would indicate she has some chance at that big win.

So who are the troops stationed in Iraq supporting in the presidential election back home? ABC News interviewed a bunch of them and found that some of them appear to like Barack Obama.

This is hardly a scientific survey, obviously, but more of the troops who spoke to ABC had nice things to say about Obama than about either Hillary or McCain. For some reason they seem to like the fact that Obama is promising to bring them home. As PFC Jeremy Slate put it, "That would be nice -- I'd like to be home, yeah."

Hillary, too, is promising to end the war, and one of the soldiers interviewed voiced support for her.

But as Will Bunch smartly notes, not a single troop interviewed even mentioned that dude who happens to be running as the GOP nominee -- i.e., John McCain.

Go figure.

The Clinton campaign is rolling out a major new ad campaign in Pennsylvania, with a total of five new ads in the state where she needs an overwhelming win in two weeks.

This spot set to play in the Scranton media market, playing up her family background in Pennsylvania, might just be the first indication of a post-Penn campaign — it plays up a down-to-Earth, humanized image for Hillary rather than the appearance of strength that Penn has been busily crafting:

Four more ads are available after the jump.

Read more »

Obama has a new ad in Pennsylvania which appears to be continuing the process of introducing him to the voters there by featuring his sister, grandmother, and wife talking about their two daughters.

In contrast to many previous ads in other states that show snippets of him rallying large crowds with soaring oratory, the ad also shows Obama in small and intimate settings, in keeping with his more low-key approach in the Keystone State...

Yesterday I noted here that Obama, speaking at a fundraiser, had made an offhand reference to a trip he took to Pakistan while in college.

Though he had never referred to the trip before, a bunch of you readers dismissed this as non-news. But a number of reporters asked Obama's press team about the trip yesterday, and now Team Obama has laid out the facts of the matter:

In 1981 -- the year Obama transferred from Occidental College to Columbia University -- Obama visited his mother and sister Maya in Indonesia. After that visit, Obama traveled to Pakistan with a friend from college whose family was from there. The Obama campaign says Obama was in Pakistan for about three weeks, staying with his friend's family in Karachi and also visiting Hyderabad in Southern India.

Geoff Garin, the new chief pollster for the Clinton campaign, says that he wants the campaign to focus on the positives for Hillary — an indication that he might be a change of pace from Mark Penn's reported desire to focus more on going negative against Barack Obama.

The key questions, of course, are whether Garin can accomplish this with the voters, and whether Mark Penn's influence truly has diminished enough that he can get it off the ground to begin with.

Hillary Clinton may have been partially redeemed on the story of a woman who didn't get medical care in Ohio — the Associated Press did a detailed fact-check and found that the basic premise was correct, but Hillary had some key details wrong.

The woman was never refused treatment by a hospital for failure to pay $100, as Hillary initially said, but instead didn't seek care at a local clinic because she would have been charged that amount. From the AP's analysis: "Bachtel's medical tragedy began with circumstances very close to the essence of Clinton's now-abandoned account: the lack of insurance created a $100 barrier to needed medical attention close to home."

A big story to watch out for today is the testimony before key Senate committees by Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker — and specifically, the fact that all three remaining presidential candidates will be questioning him at various points throughout the day.

Expect John McCain to give praise in the form of questions, and for Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton to lay out their views on why we should be leaving Iraq in an orderly fashion. But expect all of them to be careful — the news media will be watching very closely, and replaying their "questions" all over the nightly news for some time to come.

A new Rasmussen poll of Maine has some rare good news for Senate Republicans, showing Sen. Susan Collins (R) well ahead of Democratic Congressman Tom Allen. The numbers: Collins 54%, Allen 38%.

Both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have led John McCain in polling here, but Collins is apparently able to garner a lot of ticket-splitters — she wins 55% support among self-identified moderate voters, and even gets 32% of liberals.

A new Quinnipiac poll shows that Obama has cut into Hillary's lead in Pennsylvania, where she needs a decisive, if not overwhelming, win to keep her presidential hopes alive.

She leads Obama by six points, 50%-44%, down three points from only last week.

The shift is driven partly by Obama's showing among key swing constituencies -- whites, voters from the Philadelphia suburbs, and women -- 41% of whom now back Obama, up from 37% last week. Other Q-poll numbers:

*White voters for Clinton 56 -- 38 percent, down from 59 -- 34 percent last week.

*Black voters back Obama 75 -- 17 percent, compared to 73 -- 11 percent.

*Men are for Obama 48 -- 44 percent, compared to a 46 -- 46 percent tie last week.

*Voters under 45 go with Obama 55 -- 40, while older voters back Clinton 55 -- 38 percent.

As I reported here recently, Obama told a group of California donors that if he were to come within 10 points of Hillary in the state, he'd call it a victory.

If he manages to keep it as close as today's survey, it will make it that much tougher for Hillary to make the case to super-delegates that she still has any kind of reasonable shot at closing the gap with Obama.

A new SurveyUSA poll of Oregon — the first major poll for this May 20 primary — shows Barack Obama leading Hillary Clinton by a significant margin. The numbers: Obama 52%, Clinton 42%.

The Oregon primary will be held on the same day as the Kentucky primary, where another poll has Clinton way ahead.

Here's an interesting postscript to the saga of Mark Penn, who stepped down from his role as Hillary's chief strategist yesterday:

Penn had an earlier version of the infamous 3 A.M. ad that was much more of a negative spot attacking Barack Obama, and the attack prompted objections from other senior Hillary advisers, a Hillaryland source familiar with internal discussions over the ad tells me.

Among those senior advisers who objected to the ad's negative content was senior ad guru Mandy Grunwald, who's clashed with Penn in the past, the source says.

Just after Hillary's Ohio and Texas wins, Penn credited the actual ad, which contained no direct hit on Obama, with breaking his momentum.

But the version that did this -- to the extent that the ad worked -- was a later, and more positive spot, than one initially proposed by Penn, the source says.

"This was the way it was originally conceived," the adviser says. "It did not say the words `Barack Obama.' But there was a contrast part. It had a clear hit on Obama and it also had a much more negative feeling with the music."

The adviser continues: "The original ad asked, Who would you prefer answering the call -- someone with strength and experience, or someone who's untested?"

The clash over the ad underscores yet again the extent to which Penn clashed with other senior Hillary advisers about the campaign's message and direction. Some Hillary advisers hope that Penn's departure will signal less reliance on heavy-handed assertions about Obama's supposed weakness in comparison with Hillary and more of an emphasis on humanizing Hillary and showcasing her leadership abilities.

The disagreement over the ad also undercuts Penn's own justification for the ad. Shortly after news of the ad broke, Penn described the ad during a conference call with reporters as "a positive spot" with "very soft images."

The Hillary campaign and Penn's office both declined to comment on the clash over the ad; Grunwald didn't return repeated calls.

Hillary Clinton has a new ad in Indiana featuring popular Sen. Evan Bayh, who declares that Hillary will have "a spine of steel" in fighting for the state's workers:

Interestingly, Bayh promises that Hillary will fight against unfair trade deals — a sign of just how off-message Mark Penn was in his dealings with the Colombian government. It's not clear whether this ad was taped before or after the Penn story hit.

Mark Penn's demotion from his position as Hillary Clinton's top strategist has done little to solve the problem Penn has created for her with Big Labor.

The Change To Win labor federation, which has endorsed Barack Obama and has an estimated six-million members from seven big unions, has put up a blog post with the simple title, "Mark Penn Still Has To Go."

And they don't just mean Penn has to go from the campaign — they mean he has to be kicked out of the Democratic Party entirely.

"Our message on this matter is simple," writes Jason Lefkowitz, the federation's online communications director. "People who represent union-busters should not be welcome in the Democratic Party. People who represent death squads targeting trade unionists should not be welcome in the Democratic Party."

Hillary Clinton reportedly has a new radio ad in Philadelphia, featuring a just barely-concealed dig at Barack Obama.

The ad features retired general and admirals supporting her candidacy — who then hit Obama without directly naming him, by dismissing mere charisma and intellect without a track record.

Here's a Web version of the ad, which the Clinton campaign has told us is using the same basic material:

Today's Gallup tracking poll gives Barack Obama a nine-point national lead over Hillary Clinton, well outside the margin of error. Here are the numbers, compared to yesterday:

Obama 52% (+3)
Clinton 43% (-3)

Gallup's analysis notes that Obama had an especially good polling day on Sunday, possibly owing to the combination of Mark Penn's demotion and media coverage of the Clintons' tax returns. We'll find out in the next few days whether this is just statistical noise, or something sustainable.

The Obama campaign says it's not dispupting this account by The Huffington Post's Off the Bus of some remarks Obama made at a California fundraiser last night, including this:

"I traveled to Pakistan when I was in college -- I knew what Sunni and Shia was [sic] before I joined the Senate Foreign Relations Committee..."

We don't recall this being public before, but if it has been, let us know.

Obama also suggested that he wouldn't be looking for a hawkish type to shore up his foreign policy credentials when searching for a veep...

"I would like somebody who knows about a bunch of stuff that I'm not as expert on," he said, and then he was off and running. "I think a lot of people assume that might be some sort of military thing to make me look more Commander-in-Chief-like. Ironically, this is an area--foreign policy is the area where I am probably most confident that I know more and understand the world better than Senator Clinton or Senator McCain."

Late Update: Ben Smith notes that Obama's mother worked in Pakistan in the 1980s.

Late Late Update: Some of you have complained that I could have done a better job explaining that the context here was Obama's discussion of his national security credentials, which I think is a fair objection. As I've said here before, we're working to bring you lots of information at a high speed, and we will make errors of emphasis from time to time.

Late Late Late Update: Just to be perfectly clear, the only reason I flagged this was because it was an interesting biographical detail that to my knowledge hasn't been out there before. It wasn't meant as some great revelation and it pains me to have to point out that it certainly wasn't meant to feed any Obama-Muslim "smear."

In fact, it bears mentioning that I've done a fair amount to push back against such smears -- see here, here, here, and here.

Latest Update Ever: Ben, who also gets hit regularly with the false accusation that he's pro-Hillary, weighs in with a longer rumination on all this.

The daily Clinton campaign conference call, usually consisting of the daily slam against Obama followed by a freewheeling Q and A, took an unusual form this morning.

Instead, the call was purely about policy, focusing exclusively on questions about Hillary's new initiative on breast-cancer awareness — perhaps because the campaign is determined not to have to answer any more questions about Mark Penn's departure.

For those who want to listen, here it is:

Obama chief strategist David Axelrod indulges in a bit of schadenfreude over Penn's departure from the Hillary campaign, hitting Penn and Hillary over the revelations about Penn's work for the Colombian government and noting that Penn has "called the shots for all nine years of her political career..."

This has already been pointed out ad nauseum, but Penn reinforced some of the worst perceptions of Hillary -- her alleged centrism and national security hawkishness, among other things. And Axelrod appeared to be relishing the opportunity to remind folks of Penn's closeness to her over the years.

Late Update: Just to be clear, it's tough to blame Axelrod for enjoying himself a bit here, given the line of attack Penn orchestrated against his candidate.

One of Barack Obama's key unions, SEIU, is set to spend nearly $740,000 for a a massive get-out-the-vote campaign for Obama in the presidential primary.

This shows us yet again that Obama's forces will have a tremendous financial advantage over Hillary in the state that has become crucial to her hopes. As Ben Smith noted, Obama's objections to outside spending have dropped while his resources have gone up: "If money can buy an edge in Pennsylvania, he'll have it."

A new poll of Pennsylvania from American Research Group shows the Democratic primary here to be a tie. Here are the numbers, compared to the previous poll from a week and a half ago:

Clinton 45% (-6)
Obama 45% (+6)

On the one hand, ARG has not had a stellar record this cycle. On the other hand, plenty of other polls have shown the race tightening, and this poll is also indicative of significant movement within ARG's own sampling.

Two of Hillary Clinton's Congressional supporters have now gone on the record in saying that the Jeremiah Wright story is a serious problem for Barack Obama, and that super-delegates are or should be taking it into account.

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) said that the Wright story "is a big vulnerability," and that "all of this delegate stuff is artificial" next to the greater question of who can best win in big swing states like hers.

Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA) had this warning on the subject of why Hillary Clinton is more electable: "Her minister will not appear in McCain commercials."

Some more details have come out about Mark Penn's demotion from top Clinton strategist to mere pollster, showing that the Colombia meeting was the final straw that broke the Clintons' confidence in him.

Hillary Clinton, previously loyal to Penn, was reportedly enraged at the news that he'd met with the Colombian ambassador, leading her and Bill to insist that he be removed from his post as the chief strategist. And thus may have ended a close political relationship that goes all the way back to 1996.

While campaigning on Barack Obama's behalf yesterday in Pennsylvania, John Kerry disowned the notion that Hillary Clinton should drop out — a further indication that the Obama camp sees the talk as more of a negative than a positive, and that high-profile supporters might be on notice.

"She has every right to continue to fight," Kerry said. "As long as we all agree that no matter what happens in this, we're going to come together at the end of it. And we are going to guarantee that as Democrats, were going to vote a Democrat into the White House."

John McCain is set to deliver a speech today to the Veterans of Foreign Wars, touting the perceived success of the surge — a sign that he is not even remotely trying to change the subject from Iraq.

McCain will say that America now has "the genuine prospect of success," defined thusly: "Success in Iraq is the establishment of a generally peaceful, stable, prosperous, democratic state that poses no threat to its neighbors and contributes to the defeat of terrorists."

In a sign that the rhetorical volleys have only just started for the general election campaign, liberal talk radio host Ed Schultz is not backing down from his words against John McCain at a North Dakota Democratic Party fundraiser.

McCain has been publicly calling upon Barack Obama, who was present at the party dinner, to condemn Schultz for calling McCain a "warmonger." "I'm sorry, John, the label sticks," Schultz said on CNN this morning. "John McCain is a warmonger."

Mark Penn has been ousted from his position as the Clinton campaign's chief strategist, in the wake of news reports that he'd been separately doing lobbyist work on a Colombian trade deal that Hillary opposes. This is on top of the Colombian government firing him yesterday, after he'd publicly apologized for working with them.

Penn isn't totally gone, however. According to the Clinton campaign's statement, he will still be doing polling for the campaign, and dispensing advice.

Late Update: Here's the full statement:

Statement from Maggie Williams

After the events of the last few days, Mark Penn has asked to give up his role as Chief Strategist of the Clinton Campaign; Mark, and Penn, Schoen and Berland Associates, Inc. will continue to provide polling and advice to the campaign.

Geoff Garin and Howard Wolfson will coordinate the campaign's strategic message team going forward.

Late Late Update: It now appears that Hillary Clinton herself demanded Penn's removal.

In a sign that age could be a serious issue for John McCain, his campaign reportedly has plans for a public meeting of his doctors next month, at which they will take questions about the Senator's health and assure the public that he's in good shape.

McCain has, of course, used some other novel techniques to deal with the age issue — most notably bringing out his 96-year old mother on the trail. But as the campaign really progresses to the general election, and the public is faced with the idea of election a septuagenarian to a first term in the white House, expect the McCain camp to have to deal with the issue more and more often.

New Jersey Republicans really can't catch a break. Just as it had seemed like biotech executive John Crowley was on the verge of launching a campaign for the U.S. Senate — thus rescuing the state GOP from a truly odd bunch of candidates — Crowley has instead decided that he's not running.

The state Democratic machinery may be on the verge of tearing itself apart, with a potentially competitive primary race pitting 84-year old incumbent Frank Lautenberg against South Jersey Congressman Rob Andrews. But without a significant Republican in the race, this seat will stay in the safe Dem category no matter how the primary turns out.