memeorandum: Clinton Insists Dems Race Is a ‘Long Way’ From Over, Looks Toward Convention (Fox News)

9:30 AM ET, March 27, 2008

Top Items:

Domenico Montanaro / MSNBC:

New NBC-WSJ poll — From NBC's Chuck Todd — As expected, one of the two major Democratic candidates saw a downturn in the latest NBC/WSJ poll, but it's not the candidate that you think. Hillary Clinton is sporting the lowest personal ratings of the campaign.

Jackie Calmes / Wall Street Journal:

Pastor Flap Hasn't Hurt Obama — WASHINGTON — The racially charged debate over Barack Obama's relationship with his longtime pastor hasn't much changed his close contest against Hillary Clinton, or hurt him against Republican nominee-in-waiting John McCain, according to a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll.

Discussion: Crooks and Liars, Hot Air, Talking Points Memo, Pollster.com, Examining Presidential …, Donklephant, Washington Wire and Poll Dancing

Fox News:

Clinton Insists Dems Race Is a ‘Long Way’ From Over, Looks Toward Convention — The Democratic race is a “long way from being over,” Hillary Clinton told FOX News on Wednesday, and she has no qualms about taking the primary fight all the way to the convention floor.

Discussion: Gateway Pundit, TalkLeft, TPM Election Central and The Democratic Daily

Domenico Montanaro / MSNBC:

CLINTON TACTICS TURN OFF SOME SUPERDELEGATES — From NBC/NJ's Matthew E. Berger — At a time when Sen. Hillary Clinton is increasingly relying on superdelegates to vault her to the Democratic Party's nomination, a handful of undecided and pledged superdelegates are coming forward …

Discussion: Washington Wire, Liberal Values, American Street, Top of the Ticket and Hot Air

David Paul Kuhn / The Politico:

GOP Looks to ‘McCain Democrats’ — A new analysis of March polling data suggests that John McCain's cross-party support surpasses that of either Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton. — According to data provided by the Gallup Organization at Politico's request, in a hypothetical contest between McCain …

Discussion: Pennsyltucky Politics and The Page

Matt Apuzzo / Associated Press:

US: Saddam Paid for Lawmakers' Iraq Trip — Saddam Hussein's intelligence agency secretly financed a trip to Iraq for three U.S. lawmakers during the run-up to the U.S.-led invasion, federal prosecutors said Wednesday. — An indictment unsealed in Detroit accuses Muthanna Al-Hanooti …

Discussion: The Swamp, On Deadline, The Campaign Spot, Capitol Briefing, The Strata-Sphere, Gateway Pundit, PoliGazette, Power Line, Atlas Shrugs, The News Buckit and Attytood

Debbie Schlussel:
BREAKING - Feds Indict Former CAIR Michigan Chief/Current Muslim …

Discussion: Power Line and A Blog For All

Paul Egan / Detroit News:
Feds: Southfield Muslim charity official worked as Iraqi spy

Discussion: Articles by the … and Detroit Free Press

Don Surber:
Saddam's Three Stooges

Discussion: NewsBusters.org, TigerHawk, Sister Toldjah and GINA COBB

Brian Stelter / New York Times:

Finding Political News Online, the Young Pass It On — Senator Barack Obama's videotaped response to President Bush's final State of the Union address — almost five minutes of Mr. Obama talking directly to the camera — elicited little attention from newspaper and television reporters in January.

Discussion: BuzzMachine and The Huffington Post

The Politico:

Welcome to the age of the sound blast — If 1960 was the year that TV displaced radio as the main platform for political persuasion, then the 2008 primary fight between Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton may go down in history as the moment when the Internet ended the dominance of television.

Discussion: The Other McCain

John Whitesides / Reuters:

Clinton backers warn Pelosi on superdelegate rift — WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A group of prominent Hillary Clinton donors sent a letter to House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday asking her to retract her comments on superdelegates and stay out of the Democratic fight over their role in the presidential race.

Discussion: Redstate

Greg Sargent / TPM Election Central:
In Letter, Top Clinton Donors Chastise Pelosi For Statements About Super-Delegates

The Trail:
Clinton Donors Warn Pelosi on Superdelegates

Discussion: Oliver Willis, Taylor Marsh, Wonkette and Booman Tribune

Vikas Bajaj / New York Times:

Report Assails Auditor for Work at Failed Home Lender — In a sweeping accusation against one of the country's largest accounting firms, an investigator released a report on Wednesday that said “improper and imprudent practices” by a once high-flying mortgage company were condoned and enabled by its auditors.

Discussion: The Glittering Eye, TPMCafe, AMERICAblog and Calculated Risk

Vikas Bajaj / New York Times:
Inquiry Assails Accounting Firm in Lender's Fall

Discussion: Think Progress and Angry Bear

Agence France Presse:

Pentagon says new Iraq fighting arises from surge's success — WASHINGTON (AFP) — The Pentagon on Wednesday said an eruption of violence in southern Iraq, where US-backed government forces were battling Shiite militias, was a “by-product of the success of the surge.”

Discussion: McClatchy Washington Bureau, Outside The Beltway, Donklephant, The Reaction, PoliGazette, Balloon Juice and VetVoice

Patrick Cockburn / The Independent:
Iraq implodes as Shia fights Shia

Discussion: Donklephant

New York Post:

IT'S THE BLOOMY-'BAMA SHOW — Mayor Bloomberg made a surprise announcement last night that he will introduce Barack Obama when the Illinois senator makes a campaign speech today at Cooper Union. — The mayor's office took the highly unusual step of releasing information about the event late last night.

Discussion: TPM Election Central and The Page

Nicholas D. Kristof / New York Times:
Obama, Clinton — and Echoes of Nader?

Discussion: Prairie Weather and Obsidian Wings

Jeffrey M. Jones / Gallup:

Public Believes Americans Have Right to Own Guns — Nearly three in four say Second Amendment guarantees this right — PRINCETON, NJ — A solid majority of the U.S. public, 73%, believes the Second Amendment to the Constitution guarantees the rights of Americans to own guns.

Discussion: Convictions

Jules Crittenden:

Blackwater Fever — It's new, it's so bad they named it after the hated American mercenaries, because it kills the innocent just like they do. Slamming Blackwater is always fun and really adds some zing to this story suggesting that an Iraqi malaria epidemic is being kept secret.

Discussion: INSTAPUTZ, Instapundit.com and Democracy Project

IPS Inter Press Service:
IRAQ: Fever Named After Blackwater

Discussion: The Impolitic

Martin Peretz / The New Republic:

Standing By His Man — Why Obama was right in not repudiating his pastor. — The power of the preacher is an unmeasured force in American life. Of course, now that it has become an issue in a political campaign, we are focusing on the one minister and the one candidate whose lives …

Discussion: Spiritual Politics and The Daily Dish

Michael Goldfarb / Weekly Standard Blog:
The Company Obama Keeps

Discussion: Soccer Dad and Commentary

Washington Post:

Further Debunking the ‘War Zone’ Myth — The Clinton campaign has cited newspaper accounts, including one in The Washington Post, to bolster the senator's claim that her now-famous March 1996 trip to Bosnia was the first visit to a “war zone” by a first lady since World War II.

Discussion: The Jed Report and The New Nixon Blog

Sandy Quinn / The New Nixon Blog:
Duck, Mrs. Clin— Uh, Mrs. Nixon

Discussion: Power Line, Ed Driscoll.com and Stop The ACLU

C. J. Chivers / New York Times:

Supplier Under Scrutiny on Aging Arms for Afghans — Since 2006, when the insurgency in Afghanistan sharply intensified, the Afghan government has been dependent on American logistics and military support in the war against Al Qaeda and the Taliban. — But to arm the Afghan forces …

Discussion: Blue Girl, Red State, On Deadline, Hog On Ice and abu muqawama

Duncan Currie / Weekly Standard:

Family Ties — Any serious discussion of race must address out-of-wedlock births. — SAY THIS FOR Barack Obama's big speech: It is still being analyzed this week, and it will be analyzed more in the weeks and months ahead. Senator Obama went beyond the controversy over his former pastor …

Discussion: RIGHTWINGSPARKLE

This Is London:

MARRIAGE HITS LOWEST RATE SINCE RECORDS BEGAN ALMOST 150 YEARS AGO — The number of Britons tying the knot has collapsed to a record low, it has emerged. — The proportion of men and women getting married is below any level found since figures were first kept nearly 150 years ago.

Frances Robles / MiamiHerald.com:

Colombia says it found uranium linked to FARC — The seizure of up to 66 pounds of low-grade uranium linked to the FARC rebels adds weight to the evidence found in a captured rebel laptop that the guerrillas were interested in buying and selling the material, according to the Colombian Defense Ministry.

Discussion: The Jawa Report, Counterterrorism Blog and Gateway Pundit