NMI EXCLUSIVE: Count one more superdelegate for Barack Obama  —  New Mexico Democratic superdelegate Laurie Weahkee announced today she's backing Barack Obama.  —  SANTA FE — If Sen. Barack Obama needs a mere 170 more delegate votes to clinch the Democratic presidential nomination outright, he just got one vote closer.

Rahm Emanuel: Obama Is Our Presumptive Nominee  —  One of the most influential (and thus far subdued) voices in the Democratic primary all but declared the contest over on Friday morning.  —  “At this point, Barack is the presumptive nominee,” said Rep. Rahm Emanuel during the New Yorker's magazine conference.

John McCain called out by Jed Bartlet's aides  —  JERSEY CITY, N.J. — It turns out that hobnobbing with liberal blogger Arianna Huffington and the cast of NBC's “The West Wing” on the left coast can be a risky proposition for a Republican with White House ambitions.

Damsel of Distress  —  This is an amazing story.  The Democratic Party has a winner.  It has a nominee.  You know this because he has the most votes and the most elected delegates, and there's no way, mathematically, his opponent can get past him.  Even after the worst two weeks of his campaign …

Killing by the numbers  —  In 2007 elite U.S. snipers executed an unarmed Iraqi prisoner in cold blood.  Have the insidious tactics that led to atrocities in Vietnam reemerged in Iraq?  —  Genei Nesir Khudair al-Janabi, an Iraqi vegetable farmer, walked down to the ramshackle pump house along the banks of the Euphrates.

Thinking About November  —  The fight for the Democratic nomination seems to be winding down.  It's not completely over, but the odds now overwhelmingly favor Barack Obama.  —  Assuming that Mr. Obama is the nominee, he'll lead a party that, judging by the usual indicators …

Kennedy: No veep slot for Clinton  —  It's fun to think about, but there are so many obstacles, and Ted Kennedy isn't buying, he said on Bloomberg Television's “Political Capital With Al Hunt,” which airs this weekend. … Ouch.

Mark Schmitt on the Unity Ticket  —  The idea of a Barack Obama-Hillary Clinton “unity ticket” has been floated quite a bit the last few days.  But, seriously, is the idea any good?  We asked a few friends of the magazine to weigh in.  Here's Mark Schmitt, senior fellow at the New America Foundation.

Republicans vote against Mother's Day.  —  On Wednesday, the House took up the seemingly uncontroversial H. Res. 1113, “Celebrating the role of mothers in the United States and supporting the goals and ideals of Mother's Day.”  The resolution initially passed 412 to 0, until Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-KS) rose in protest:

Bill Clinton Strikes Again: He Heatedly Argues With A Voter (UPDATED)  —  They must have run out of duct tape at Home Depot — or Hillary Clinton's advisers must believe that an angry Bill Clinton arguing with a female voter who interrupted him in West Virginia is going to win over people who don't already support Hillary Clinton.

Did Edwards Tip His Hand?  —  Former presidential candidate appears on MSNBC, refuses to reveal who he voted for on Tuesday.  —  But says in passing- “I just voted for him on Tuesday.”  Or was it “just voted for 'em?”  Or something else? … Also says there's “a great likelihood” …

Obama's Faulty Tax Argument  —  As the presidential campaign heats up, a key issue is whether to extend the 2001 and 2003 income tax cuts, which expire in 2011.  John McCain wants to make the tax cuts permanent.  Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton want to let the rates rise.

IRAN'S WEAPONS....Tina Susman of the LA Times reports that Iranian involvement in Iraq's civil war may not be everything it's been cracked up to be: … This item only showed up on the LAT's Iraq blog, not in a regular news piece.  If it weren't for the blog, I wonder if we ever would have heard of this?

Obama Needs a History Lesson  —  In his victory speech after the North Carolina primary, Sen. Barack Obama said something that is all the more remarkable for how little it has been remarked upon.  —  In defending his stated intent to meet with America's enemies without preconditions, Sen. Obama said:

The Conservative Revival  —  For years, American and British politics were in sync.  Reagan came in roughly the same time as Thatcher, and Clinton's Third Way approach mirrored Blair's.  But the British conservatives never had a Gingrich revolution in the 1990s or the Bush victories thereafter.

Bernie Ward admits to child porn in plea deal  —  (05-08) 18:49 PDT SAN FRANCISCO — Bernie Ward, the most prominent liberal voice on Bay Area talk radio for more than two decades, admitted Thursday to distribution of child pornography by e-mail in a plea deal that will send him to federal prison for at least five years.

You want radical?  You got it  —  Supreme Court justices take an oath promising to “faithfully and impartially discharge and perform all the duties . . . of the Supreme Court of the United States under the Constitution and laws of the United States.  So help me God.”