Republicans used to beat Democrats on foreign policy every time. But now Obama is changing the nature of the fight
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a question, foreign policy "toughness", that's been a perceived Democratic weakness since Vietnam - it was the guy with the thin foreign policy résumé, suspected by some of his compatriots of being a Muslim, who out-punched the war hero with the extensive résumé. And shall I add that the one with the thin résumé and the strange name has a dodgy position on the question at hand, and yet still won?

Agents for Sen. Hillary Clinton, trying desperately to keep alive her presidential campaign, are privately telling Democrats she is so ''tight'' with a dollar she would not continue her contest against Sen. Barack Obama if she did not have a chance to win.
That was a reference to Clinton pulling $11 million out of her family's newfound personal fortune to maintain her candidacy. Saying she would not waste money on a futile effort, her supporters imply she will still find a path to the presidential nomination.
idential campaign will be made available to former GOP Rep. Bob Barr as the Libertarian Party candidate, but McCain strategists fear that will be the case.

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Democratic White House hopeful Barack Obama Sunday looked past his soon-to-end nominating battle against Hillary Clinton by savaging

WASHINGTON - There's nothing quite like a happy ending - or at least what seems to pass for one.
Maybe that's why so many Democrats want to see a Barack Obama-Hillary Clinton ticket this fall.
mer governor of New York, and Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell.

Jeff Chiu, AP A Minnesota poll shows that Republican nominee Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., trails either Democrat in head-to-head matchups in the state.

Let's cut to the almost-inevitable chase: How will Barack Obama do against John McCain in this fall's rumble for the U.S. presidency?
With signs showing Hilary Clinton will have to drop out of the race, we're going to be left to determine whether the 46-year-old black Democrat or 71-year-old white Republican will climb into the powerful office. And that requi [barack_obama.jpg] res looking at the religion factor.
s repeatedly question how the Arizona senator could embrace preacher John Hagee, who has denounced Catholicism as the "Great Whore" and believes Hurricane Katrina was God's punishment on "sinful" New Orleans.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Making up for lost time, Barack Obama is dashing full-tilt into the general-election fight against Republican John McCain without waiting for the Democratic marathon to end.
He's running down McCain more often than the woman he's nominally still fighting for his own party's nomination. And he's running after white working-class voters, independents, Hispanics, Catholics and Jews — voting blocs that will be important in the November election and with whom he's had mixed successes.
nd not be prepared," said Obama campaign manager David Plouffe. Offering a campaign line Obama is already using, he said, "By November, every voter will know that McCain is offering a third Bush term."

UNTIL now, Barack Obama's attacks on John McCain have invariably been preceded with an honouring of the Arizona senator's military service and his status as a "true American hero" for the five years he spent as a prisoner-of-war in Vietnam.
But the courtesy went missing last week as Obama and McCain had their first serious down-and-dirty scrap over foreign policy and national security.
d and divided the country at home, but his main interest was roping in McCain, which he did by referring to Iraq and issuing a challenge to both men.

By LISA VAN DUSEN The bewilderingly resilient idea that Hillary Clinton, after the draining, divisive psychodrama of the past year, would be an attractive

1. Police, firefighter unions: Agreed, 69-29, to debate a bill (HR - granting limited union rights to police, firefighters, corrections officers and other public-safety personnel in all states. The bill, which remained in debate, empowers state and local first responders to bargain over wages, benefits and working conditions but prohibits strikes by unions and lockouts by employers. At least 20 states now deny collective-bargaining rights to public employees. Among presidential candidates, Barack Obama, D-Ill., and Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., voted yes, and John McCain, R-Ariz., did not vote. A yes vote was to advance the bill.
2. Five-year farm bill: Approved, 81-15,

by Aaron Bruns FRANKFORT, KY – With the Democratic nomination all but wrapped up, Barack Obama has moved past his primary battle with Hillary Clinton,