Good Wednesday morning. Politics Nation is headed westward toward the RNC meeting in Albuquerque, so your morning thoughts are coming to you from Tuesday evening. We've got a couple more hot posts in the can for today, but look for breaking news updates that no one else is giving you as the week continues. For now, here's what Washington is watching today:

-- The Senate continues consideration of a bill that serves as a vehicle for housing legislation. Meanwhile, the House deals with funding for global HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria programs, named for the late Reps. Tom Lantos and Henry Hyde. President Bush is in Romania, where he will meet with local officials and with NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer. Defense Secretary Gates and Secretary of State Rice are both on the trip with the president.

-- On the White House trail, Democratic fundraising severely slowed in March, Time's The Page reports, with the two candidates bringing in around $50 million total -- $30 million for Barack Obama and $20 million for Hillary Clinton. That's significantly less than the $85 million the two brought in, combined, in February, perhaps signaling some donors' sickness of the intra-party squabbling, or at least a ceiling that both candidates are close to reaching. Of course, the April 15 filings will show how many of their donors are maxed out, or close to, and just how much each candidate has to spend between yesterday and the Pennsylvania primaries three weeks from today. And by the way, silence from the John McCain campaign...

-- The Clinton campaign has acknowledged for the first time that the Rev. Jeremiah Wright is a serious issue in their efforts to convince super delegates to come their way. Super delegate wooer extraordinaire Harold Ickes told TPM, in an interview published yesterday, that Wright has come up as a hot talking point in his conversations with uncommitted party big wigs. Ickes called the campaign so far "genteel," a statement with which Obama backers will likely disagree.

-- Still, if private conversations are the only way Wright is brought up in a general election, isn't that fantastic news for Obama? How seriously can he expect John McCain, notably against negative campaigning in any form, to ride herd among every Republican interest group that might just want to put some of Wright's comments in a television ad? There are at least a few prominent right-leaning groups around Washington that are already considering just how to use those statements most effectively against former Wright parishioner Obama.

-- Meanwhile, Obama has virtually dispensed with Clinton as an opponent. He spent Tuesday focusing on McCain's positions on Iraq, trade and taxes in a town hall meeting in Wilkes-Barre. Referring to McCain's current biography tour, Obama was curt: "Most of us know his biography, and it's worthy of our admiration. My argument with John McCain is not with his biography, it's with his policies," Obama said, per the Associated Press. Obama, though, is toeing a line on McCain's "100 years" comment from a few months back that is already gaining notice from some columnists for its lack of context. Keep a watch on that developing controversy for a look at how Obama handles his forthcoming attacks on other candidates.

-- Some Republican strategists are starting to agree with Hillary Clinton on the notion that Barack Obama could be a bigger drag on the Democratic ticket than the former First Lady, the Weekly Standard's Michael Goldfarb writes, citing a Roll Call column from today. But is that true? Obama and McCain are different than Clinton, though; Republican strategists tell Politics Nation they are convinced McCain can go into largely Democratic districts, while Democratic strategists tell us they are more confident in Obama's ability to go into Republican districts on behalf of their candidates.

-- Obama and McCain have always set themselves up as post-partisan politicians, and if they succeed in keeping their reputations like that, a general election matchup will likely yield a mixed bag. Republicans continue to face difficult times with their campaign committees, and as the Illinois special election last month proved, the landscape decidedly favors Democrats. But McCain brings voters out in Arizona, where Republicans are defending an incumbent and an open seat and actively targeting two Democratic incumbents. Add in open seats in neighboring New Mexico and McCain may end up saving more GOP seats in Congress -- win or lose -- than Obama will.

-- In fact, McCain has already changed the map Democrats hoped to achieve in 2008. At the beginning of the cycle, Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado were Democratic targets. The latter two remain on the list, but after President Bush won the Land of Enchantment by 6,000 votes and the Mile High State by a few more percentage points, neither looks like a sure thing. And forget the fact that Democrats won two Congressional seats in McCain's home state and have a good shot at another one; the party's chances of taking the Copper State's electoral votes in November have already evaporated.

-- Back And Forth Of The Day: "While I certainly will not stoop to the low level of Mr. Carville, I feel compelled to defend myself against character assassination and baseless allegations," New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson writes in today's Washington Post. The article comes after James Carville, the Clinton adviser, took after Richardson in an op-ed of his own last week. Richardson may not want to "stoop" to Carville's level, but by responding, he already has. One of the most interesting side notes from the 2008 campaign will be Richardson's future. Does he become a Gore-like party elder, or does he have a higher Cabinet-level future?

-- Today On The Trail: McCain continues his biography tour with a stop at his alma mater in Annapolis, followed by a speech to voters in Pensacola, Florida. Clinton has an economic summit in Pittsburgh, after which she will receive policy briefings from top advisers. Obama has plans to attend a town hall meeting in Wallingford, Pennsylvania, before joining MSNBC's Hardball for a live shot from West Chester University. Bill Clinton is in Indiana, while Michelle Obama has a rally scheduled with Teresa Heinz Kerry in Stiller City, better known as Pittsburgh.