Good Friday morning. Think of Leap Day as a gift, an extra day to learn something new. Like this: The Ottawa Senators fired their coach yesterday, a move coming 18 games before the end of the season. We were just shocked to learn that the NHL still exists. In Washington, DC, where the Caps remain three wins out of the playoffs, here's what's making news:

-- The Senate takes up a measure to prevent certain home foreclosures this morning, though no roll call votes will be recorded. Meanwhile, the Senate Homeland Security Committee takes up reform of the intelligence community. The House is not in session today, and President Bush has a meeting with NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer.

-- A new survey for the Pew Research Center is just the sort of ammunition Hillary Clinton needs as days wind down before Ohio and Texas vote. Despite Barack Obama's lead over John McCain in recent polls, Clinton maintains she is the candidate with a better shot of winning the general election. She's been tested, she argues, while Obama has not, and the exploitation of any Obama weakness by McCain and Republicans will be too much for the rookie to bear. The survey shows most voters say Obama has not provided enough information about his policies, while a plurality says he wouldn't be tough enough to handle foreign and national security affairs. If only Clinton could get the average voter to read polls.

-- But the poll has great news for McCain, who has spent every waking moment trying to steer the conversation to Iraq and the war on terror: Public attitudes on Iraq are shifting, as more Americans say progress is being made -- up 18% in the past year (including Angelina Jolie). That gives Republicans hope that their guy has a chance this fall: The more a person thinks the war is going well, the more likely they are to cast a ballot for McCain. Even more importantly for McCain, slightly fewer people say the war was the right decision, but his argument hinges on convincing Americans he's the right guy for the future. That argument, so far, is working.

-- On the Democratic side, everything is coming up aces. The two candidates will have raised a combined total of $80 million or more for the month of February -- $50 million for Obama, about $35 million for Clinton, many people report. That's more than McCain has raised in his entire campaign. If either Clinton or Obama are seriously thinking about public financing when they can write their own checks, they need their heads examined.

-- Still, that much money pouring in means both candidates remain viable, and both have to focus on each other while McCain can cruise without too many stumbling blocks. Obama wants to end that on Tuesday, with a final blow that could knock Clinton from the race. His camp has bought two-minute advertisements in every market in Ohio and Texas for Monday afternoon, Chuck Todd reports. Clinton, trying to stay afloat, will hold another town hall meeting similar to the nationally broadcast one she held before February 5. Both teams are planning a long pass, and both have very different goals.

-- Not all is well in McCainville. Even when he gets a prominent, base-coalescing endorsement, it turns out to be a political liability. McCain, who was backed yesterday by well-known evangelist John Hagee, is taking serious heat from Catholic League chief Bill Donohue, who alleges that Hagee has spent years fighting and insulting the Catholic Church. "Senator Obama has repudiated the endorsement of Louis Farrakhan, another bigot. McCain should follow suit and retract his embrace of Hagee," Donohue wrote in a statement.

-- Mike Huckabee, meanwhile, was also irritated by the endorsement: He thought he should have gotten it, as NBC/NJ's Matt Berger writes. Huckabee criticized the minister for playing politics instead of standing on principle, saying Hagee told him the endorsement came because he figured it was about time to get on McCain's winning team. Huckabee's run is likely coming to a close, but as it does, he's looking more aggressive. In the long run, staying in the race an extra few weeks is not going to hurt his own career nearly as much as mounting bitterness at his party's nominee.

-- Relocation Of The Day: Former Maine Governor Kenneth Curtis has abandoned his state for the sunny climes of Florida, the Ellsworth American wrote recently (that's the same paper that ran a series on Maine as the "whitest state"). Curtis, a former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, probably didn't realize that his move fundamentally altered the national playing field. Curtis had pledged support to Clinton, DemConWatch reports, but because he's now a Florida resident, Curtis has lost his vote in Denver. That means the number of eligible super delegates is down to 794, and Clinton has lost another one, not to Obama, but to Florida. The way this winter is going, wouldn't you do the same?

-- Today On The Trail: Obama meets voters at an American Legion outpost in Houston before heading to a prayer meeting in Brownsville. Later, he'll hold a rally in Selma. Clinton is in Dallas for the funeral of a police officer who died after her motorcycle crashed during a Clinton motorcade. Later, Clinton has rallies planned for Waco and San Antonio. McCain has a town hall meeting in Round Rock, Texas, followed by a media availability, while Huckabee rallies in Lubbock and College Station before making himself available to the media in Fort Worth and Houston.