WASHINGTON POST: Sen. Barack Obama swept to convincing victories over Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton in Democratic presidential primaries in Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia, extending his winning streak since Feb. 5 to eight. In a victory speech tonight in Madison, Wis., Obama declared “we’re on our way,” but warned that the job of brining about fundamental change in Washington was far from done. “We know it takes more than one night – or even one election – to overcome decades of money and the influence; bitter partisanship and petty bickering that’s shut you out, let you down and […]

NEW YORK TIMES: WASHINGTON — After more than a year of heated political wrangling, the Senate handed the White House a major victory Tuesday by voting to broaden the government’s spy powers after giving legal protection to phone companies that cooperated in President Bush’s warrantless eavesdropping program. The Senate rejected a series of amendments that would have restricted the government’s surveillance powers and eliminated immunity for the phone carriers, and it voted in convincing fashion — 69 to 29 — to end debate and bring the issue to a final vote. That vote on the overall bill was an almost […]

LOUISVILLE COURIER-JOURNAL: Editorial cartoons are designed to make sharp, immediate points, and they depend on caricature and exaggeration to make those points in weighing in on the news of the day. And make no mistake: The Democratic race is not only among the top stories of the day, it’s a story for the ages as the two front-runners vault over old barriers of gender and race in their history-making quests for the White House. If you’re an editorial cartoonist, are there any special guidelines or sensitivities when it comes to drawing Clinton and Obama? How do you use exaggeration and […]

NEW YORK TIMES: Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and her advisers are increasingly concerned that, after her victories in the Feb. 5 primaries, she could be on a precipitous losing streak in nomination contests this month that could endanger her competitiveness in the upcoming votes in Ohio and Texas on March 4, several aides said on Monday. Her losses last weekend in Washington, Nebraska, Louisiana and Maine have thrown the Clinton campaign into a state of anxiety not seen since her drubbing in the Iowa caucuses on Jan. 3, with major donors and supporters saying for the first time that they are […]

EDITOR’S NOTE: Back when I was freelancing my way through the ’90s, health insurance was a luxury that, like 40 million other Americans, I simply could not afford. “I voted for Clinton — twice,” I would always say to the receptionist at the doctor’s office whenever they asked who my insurer was. “I thought that was my insurance.” RUSH LIMBAUGH: “But the reason for raising money for Hillary is because that apparently my party is relying on fear and loathing of Hillary to get the nomination, to unite Republicans, who are, some of them, off the reservation. The Republicans do […]

The more things change, the more things stay the same? Just wondering.

WASHINGTON POST: AUGUSTA, Maine — Barack Obama defeated Hillary Rodham Clinton in Maine presidential caucuses Sunday, grabbing a majority of delegates as the state’s Democrats overlooked the snowy weather and turned out in heavy numbers for municipal gatherings. Democrats in 420 Maine towns and cities were deciding how the state’s 24 delegates will be allotted at the party’s national convention in August. Despite the weather, turnout was “incredible,” party executive director Arden Manning said. With 70 percent of the participating precincts reporting, Obama led in state delegates elected over Clinton, 1,564 to 1,122, with 17 uncommitted. Organizers had expected heavy […]

[Photo by VIC SUEDE] ASSOCIATED PRESS: WASHINGTON — Sen. Barack Obama swept the Louisiana primary and caucuses in Nebraska and Washington state Saturday night, slicing into Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s slender delegate lead in their historic race for the Democratic presidential nomination. The Illinois senator also won caucuses in the Virgin Islands, completing his best night of the campaign. Obama’s winning margins ranged from substantial to crushing. He won roughly two-thirds of the vote in Washington state and Nebraska, and almost 90 percent in the Virgin Islands. Late Louisiana returns showed Obama with 55 percent of the vote, to 39 […]

WASHINGTON POST: Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney will suspend his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination, according to sources within his inner circle. A number of those sources said the decision would be announced in his speech to the Conservative Political Action Committee conference this afternoon in Washington, D.C. “I must now stand aside, for our party and our country,” Romney said in remarks prepared for his appearance and released by his campaign. “If I fight on in my campaign, all the way to the convention, I would forestall the launch of a national campaign and make it more likely […]