Gallup Daily: Tracking Election 2008  —  Based on polling conducted Feb. 13-15, 2008  —  PRINCETON, NJ — For several days, nationwide Democratic voters' preferences have been shifting toward Barack Obama in Gallup Poll Daily election tracking.  Now, the Illinois senator enjoys …

Right slams Obama as ‘shady Chicago socialist’  —  Republicans are out to crush Barack by painting him as a leftwinger with dubious support  —  LEADING Republicans believe they can trounce Barack Obama in the presidential election by tarring him as a shady Chicago socialist.

Unofficial Tallies in City Understated Obama Vote  —  Black voters are heavily represented in the 94th Election District in Harlem's 70th Assembly District.  Yet according to the unofficial results from the New York Democratic primary last week, not a single vote in the district was cast for Senator Barack Obama.

F.B.I. Received Unauthorized E-Mail Access  —  WASHINGTON — A technical glitch gave the F.B.I. access to the e-mail messages from an entire computer network — perhaps hundreds of accounts or more — instead of simply the lone e-mail address that was approved by a secret intelligence court …

Al Gore to the Rescue?  —  Stumper's Take: He foresaw global warming.  He “took the initiative” on the Internet.  And he knew exactly how Iraq would turn out.  Who's to say that Al Gore hasn't known all along that the Democratic race would descend into some weird state of gridlock …

A Rotten Way to Pick a President  —  Something is seriously wrong with the way we pick our presidential candidates.  But experts and pundits, caught up in the horse races, have been slow to point out the obvious — or have come to accept our badly flawed system as immutable fact.

These Kinds Of Sexist Remarks Are Not What I Am Looking For … In a campaign marked by news coverage unrelenting in its sexism and misogyny, especially from NBC, the last thing we can afford is sexism from the frontrunning candidate.  Barack Obama needs to apologize for this remark.

Study Says Payday Lenders More Prevalent In Areas Of High Christian Conservative Power  —  A law professor and associate professor of geography set out to create the most comprehensive map of U.S. payday lenders to date.  What they found, to their surprise, was “a surprising relationship between populations …

Where is Obama on Gun Rights?  —  Not surprisingly, here, there and everywhere.  —  He believes (as do I) that the Second Amendment conveys an individual right to bear arms.  But, he supports reasonable regulations on those rights.  So where does reasonable regulation end and infringement on an individual's rights begin?

Feminists For Clinton  —  A very well written letter from a group of feminist intellectuals who support Hillary Clinton was e-mailed to me, also at HuffPo.  I reprint it on the flip:

Margaret Carlson's Anti Hillary Email  —  Nice email, huh?  A reader sent it to me.  Really exposes the arrogance of Bloomberg News's Margaret Carlson, doesn't it?  Op-ed columnists, however, can say whatever they want, but they should not split hairs about the true motives behind their agenda …

Myth/Fact: Five Myths About the House's Failure to Give Our Intelligence Professionals the Tools They Need to Monitor Terrorists Effectively  —  House Leadership's Decision To Block A Vote On A Bipartisan Senate Solution Will Create Unacceptable Risks To Our National Security

Obama's Appeal (The Secret Thereof)  —  Allow me to expand on my notion that Obama is the Mirror of Desire (Mirror of Erised to you Harry Potter fans out there) in which people see what they most want to see.  —  Obama's basic message is that he is a smart and reasonable guy who will reach …