Good Friday morning. Yesterday, Alaska crossed the $4 per gallon of gas mark. Today, it's Chicago and Hartford. Watch those economic conditions poll numbers sink progressively lower. Here's what Washington watches this morning:

-- After a week in which Congress passed the farm bill and the House narrowly approved a war funding measure, both chambers are in pro forma session today. President Bush has already arrived in Riyadh for meetings with King Abdullah, during which he will talk about those very gas prices we mentioned earlier. It's not often that the increasingly sidelined president gets to make news, but he sure did yesterday.

-- That news came on the floor of the Israeli Knesset, when President Bush attacked those who "seem to believe that we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals," calling that approach the "false comfort of appeasement." Barack Obama's campaign took that as an insult and slammed the president for politicizing the 60th birthday celebrations of the Jewish state, and for bringing Nazis into the picture, as AP's Liz Sidoti writes. Obama has said he would meet with leaders of some countries, most notably Iran, that the current administration has not. White House spokeswoman Dana Perino told reporters the line wasn't a shot at Obama, but it certainly looked that way. Reports this morning suggest Obama will offer a strong response today.

-- Obama wasn't alone in his outrage. Virtually every key Democrat in Congress issued a statement defending their party's likely nominee (Tracked down in the hall, Delaware Senator Joe Biden called the comments "bull" something, while a release from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the comments beneath the dignity of the presidency). In Rapid City, South Dakota, even Hillary Clinton got involved: "President Bush's comparison of any Democrat to Nazi appeasers is both offensive and outrageous on the face of it, especially in light of his failures in foreign policy," she said, defending Obama per Ben Smith. John McCain, on the other hand, would not disassociate himself with the comments and said Obama "needs to explain" why he would meet with Iran, the New York Times' Elisabeth Bumiller writes from the bus.

-- Meanwhile, McCain's comments weren't the only shot the Arizona senator took at his colleague from Illinois yesterday. On a conference call with conservative bloggers, McCain previewed what is likely to be the harshest argument to come out of the candidate's own mouth during the campaign: "Senator Obama does not have the knowledge, the experience, the background to make the kind of judgments that are necessary to preserve this nation's security," he said, per TPM's Greg Sargent. The old tactic of making an opponent's biggest strength, in this case youthful energy, into a weakness, in this case inexperience, is McCain's best chance at winning in November.

-- But the candidate spent most of yesterday in a positive mood, telling a Columbus audience that the war in Iraq can be won by the end of his first term and previewing the intervening four years' developments on taxes, national security and the sort of post-partisanship that McCain asserts he represents, the AP's Glen Johnson writes. But forget those other issues, all reporters wanted to talk about was this new timeline for ending the war: Was this the same thing McCain blasted Mitt Romney for in advance of Super Tuesday? Was this McCain's version of a "Mission Accomplished" banner, as some Democrats suggested? Neither, McCain insisted. Most polls show voters don't approve of the war but trust McCain to handle it better, though it's clearly an issue around which he needs to tiptoe lightly. The first hurdle: Ending speculation over his "100 years" comments. Does this accomplish that goal? In the DNC's minds, it does not.

-- Meanwhile, we wrote yesterday about the loss of several McCain aides due to their lobbying efforts on behalf of the military junta in Myanmar. Also yesterday, the campaign had to ask GOP strategist Craig Shirley to step down due to his involvement in a 527 organization, and manager Rick Davis heard questions about his ties to a pro-Moscow political party in Ukraine. To stem the bleeding, McCain's team is re-vetting the entire staff, Marc Ambinder reports. Each staff member is filling out a lengthy questionnaire in coordination with a new policy on conflicts of interest, and anyone not in compliance will be shown the door.

-- Finally, from the West Coast, in a four-to-three decision the California Supreme Court struck down two state laws that define and limit marriages to those between a man and a woman, the New York Times writes. If no stay is granted within thirty days, same-sex partners will be allowed to marry, the second state, after Massachusetts, in which such unions will be recognized. Anti-gay marriage initiatives were on the ballot in a number of swing states in 2004, though some argue their presence did not actually hurt John Kerry that year, but this time around, marriage is not likely to be a hot issue. Neither Obama nor McCain are on the extremes of their party -- Obama won't support marriage, and McCain voted against a national ban because of federalism concerns. In this instance, it appears an issue that gets fringe groups worked up will not be in play come November.

-- Criminals Of The Day: On the do-not-call list? This campaign doesn't care, and now they've admitted wrongdoing in Oregon. Which campaign so brazenly runs afoul of, nay, openly scoffs at, the Beaver State's laws regarding robo-calling those on the federal register? Well, actually it's both Hillary Clinton's and Barack Obama's campaign that are making the illegal calls, as the Oregonian reports today. Both campaigns have stopped and are scrubbing their lists in accordance with Oregon law, but if the state's attorney general had decided to bring charges, the campaigns might have been on the hook for a whopping $5,000 per call.

-- Today On The Trail: Obama will join former Senator Tom Daschle for a town hall meeting in Watertown, South Dakota, to talk about rural issues. Former Senator George McGovern will join the two for a rally in Sioux Falls later this afternoon. Clinton will stump in Springfield, Oregon before heading to Salem and a town hall meeting in Portland. McCain addresses the annual meeting of the National Rifle Association in Louisville, Kentucky, and ends the evening in Newark, New Jersey, ahead of weekend plans.

Posted by Reid Wilson at 09:00 AM | Email Author | Permalink

Good Thursday morning. Any idea what all the cable networks will be focused on today? "Hello, Senator Edwards' booker?" Here's the rest of what Washington is watching today:

-- The House will take up a bill to appropriate supplemental funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, along with some money for domestic spending, while the Senate could start to vote on the conference committee's report on the farm bill, a report that passed the House with limited opposition. President Bush, on his first full day in Israel, visited Masada this morning and will address the Knesset today, before meeting with Quartet Representative and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

-- But the big news today is John Edwards, the former candidate and one-time Iowa front-runner who stood on stage in Grand Rapids, Michigan last night to offer some very kind words for Hillary Clinton before announcing his endorsement of Barack Obama. In the heart of Reagan Democrat country, Edwards talked about working-class issues, and the healing between Obama and white working class voters begins. Expect Edwards to get out on the campaign trail a lot for Obama in the coming months to start doing that repair work.

-- Edwards' support drives another nail in Clinton's coffin in a meta sense, but practically, he doesn't even officially bring the 16 delegates already named to Edwards-backing seats at the convention. They're free to vote for whomever they like, though given the number of ex-Edwards supporters who have migrated to the Obama campaign it's pretty likely they will be in his corner too. Notice that Edwards waited until after his state's primary; he likely couldn't have helped Obama, not only because of Obama's large margin in North Carolina but also because Edwards, who only ran once in the state, doesn't have much of an organization there. Still, more than Joe Andrew or George McGovern or Roy Romer, Edwards' backing has an air of finality, and of the party coalescing around the winner, about it.

-- Practically speaking, Edwards' was on the second-most important nod bestowed upon Obama yesterday. NARAL Pro-Choice America also gave the young senator their blessing, with the president of the abortion rights group saying they were backing the candidate who would likely win the Democratic nomination, again while praising Clinton. It's the first major women's group to abandon Clinton, and it's another sign that the Washington establishment is deciding that the race is over. (For more, check out The Fix's extensive look at the reasoning and timing behind an Edwards nod)

-- NARAL's backing of Obama prompted an angry reply from more than a dozen Clinton-backing female members of Congress, who in an evening press conference called the endorsement all kinds of ugly names. Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz said she felt "abandoned," while California Rep. Jane Harman called it a "betrayal," per Politico. EMILY's List President Ellen Malcolm issued a strongly-worded statement blasting NARAL, as Marc Ambinder writes. The endorsement's real fallout: Strife in the abortion-rights community, and further rending of the Democratic fabric.

-- Over on the GOP side, look for this story to be repeated ad nauseam: A John McCain aide is in trouble for lobbying connections. McCain has already lost two aides over their ties to the repressive regime in Myanmar, and now the Wall Street Journal reports that campaign manager Rick Davis had helped a Ukrainian political party that had the support of Vladimir Putin, the former Russian president who had a habit of meddling in nearby countries' elections. McCain, meanwhile, has publicly voiced support for the incumbent party of Viktor Yuschenko. Davis still owns a portion of the lobbying firm, Davis Manafort, but he's not earning any income, a spokesman reports. With former lobbyists involved in McCain's campaign, this story is going to return.

-- Meanwhile, McCain has designated one aide as his top attack dog already. Former chief of staff Mark Salter, frequently referred to as the senator's alter ego, has honed his skills in the art of the attack memo, and the Journal, profiling him today, suggests that could be a prelude to a campaign not inclined to pull punches. If Salter is pushing for an aggressive line against Obama, McCain is going to hear about it, and from a voice he trusts. How influential is Salter in McCain's inner circle? Three campaign aides who had quit smoking took up their habits again thanks to time spent around him.

-- Buyouts Of The Day: As the deadline for accepting a buyout from the Washington Post passes today, expect a few more names to leak out. But few could compare with yesterday's news, both in the news and entertainment divisions. On the funny side, sportswriter Tony Kornheiser, an ESPN and Washington staple, will take the buyout, he announced on his show yesterday. On the serious side, David Broder will too, as Politico reports. The man long called the dean of the Washington press corps will become a contract writer after 2008.

-- Today On The Trail: Obama is down today, spending time in Chicago. Clinton has a town hall meeting in Bath, South Dakota, before heading out west to California for a fundraiser. McCain has a major speech ready for Columbus, Ohio, and he will end the day in Washington.

Posted by Reid Wilson at 09:00 AM | Email Author | Permalink

Good Wednesday morning. Hoping to show he's just a normal guy, Barack Obama headed to a Charlestown billiard parlor a few days ago and performed much better than he did in a Latrobe bowling alley a few weeks back. But the bowling alley haunts him, as Ben Smith screen-grabs. In previous Clinton speeches, she had boxing gloves behind her. Now's it's a bowling pin. Here's what a chuckling Washington is watching this morning:

-- The House begins considering a supplemental war funding bill as well as a measure on food and energy security, while the Senate continues work on other measures. President Bush left Washington for a Middle East tour yesterday evening and this morning he arrives at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, before heading to Jerusalem to meet with President Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, the latter of whom could be knocked from office by a bribery indictment in a matter of days.

-- In the latest primary contest, the fifty-first this year, Hillary Clinton won West Virginia by a hefty 67%-26% margin, with John Edwards winning the remaining 7%. Clinton will take home about 20 of the state's 28 delegates, and the victory could provide the campaign with a fundraising bump -- they sent out the email and a text message last night -- and a new excuse to call for the seating of delegates from Michigan and Florida. As campaign chairman Terry McAuliffe told the New York Times last night, a mantra he's taken to repeating, the win means Clinton will have the political and financial wherewithal to continue through June 3, though he won't say anything about June 4.

-- But West Virginia's election had racial undertones that neither candidate can find comforting. Exit polls show 22% of voters said the race of one of the candidates was important, and of those voters, 81% backed Clinton over Obama. Clinton won the remaining three quarters of the electorate by a much smaller 59% of the vote. Half of voters said Obama shares the views of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and 54% would be dissatisfied if Obama wins the Democratic nomination. In short, there is a segment of the Democratic electorate that will not vote for an African American, and enough of them live in West Virginia to show up in exit polls.

-- Those voters, less-educated, lower-income whites who dominate the state, as ABC News' Gary Langer finds in the exit polls, were similar in many regards to voters around the country -- they want change more than experience, the vast majority has been hit by hard economic times, and the majority thought Clinton had attacked Obama unfairly. In most other states, Obama has won the first and third categories, which Clinton has taken the second. In West Virginia, Clinton split change voters with Obama, with 47% to his 48%, while actually winning 54% of voters who said she had attacked unfairly.

-- Obama is still the likely nominee, but as Clinton pointed out last night, since 1916 no Democrat has won the White House without winning West Virginia. That could spell trouble for Obama come November, not just in West Virginia but among like-minded voters in Pennsylvania and Ohio. Those three states alone make up 44 electoral votes that can't be made up simply by being competitive in Virginia, Colorado and a few of the new states Obama's team thinks he can put on the table. And to make matters worse, there are other states that look more like Appalachia than like the Potomac area, especially in Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota and the rest of the Upper Midwest and Rust Belt.

-- John McCain had something of a bad night yesterday as well. In Mississippi, Southaven Mayor Greg Davis, a Republican, lost a special election seat to Prentiss County Chancery Clerk Travis Childers in a district that gave President Bush a 25-point win in 2004, making Childers the third Democrat to steal a special election from Republicans in the past three months. (See our write-up of the race here -- "GOP Stunned By Loss In Mississippi") McCain is running significantly ahead of his party in national polls, but if the GOP can't even win a seat in the heart of the Deep South, they're going to be able to lend their top of the ticket virtually no support come November.

-- How badly has the loss in Mississippi shaken the House GOP? "The political environment is such that voters remain pessimistic about the direction of the country and the Republican Party in general," National Republican Congressional Committee chair Tom Cole said in a shockingly forthcoming statement. "I encourage all Republican candidates, whether incumbents or challengers, to take stock of their campaigns and position themselves for challenging campaigns this fall by building the financial resources and grassroots networks that offer them the opportunity and ability to communicate, energize and turn out voters this election." One House leadership aide told Politics Nation: "To lose two Southern seats in two weeks, I mean, oh my God."

-- Rebound Of The Day: The morning after Clinton's big win in West Virginia, the two Democratic candidates are acting in very opposite roles, speaking to the larger status of the race as a whole. Clinton returned to Washington to sit with top members of her finance committee, while Obama has picked up backing from two super delegates, including Indiana Rep. Pete Visclosky and the chairwoman of Democrats Abroad. Inching closer to the 2,025 delegates needed the day after getting smacked in West Virginia, or holding a pep rally among top advisers the day after winning big? Shouldn't those roles be reversed? Not this year.

-- Today On The Trail: Obama meets workers at an economic discussion in Warren, Michigan before rallying in Grand Rapids later tonight. It's Obama's first visit to Michigan in ten months after skipping the state's delegate-stripped contest in January. Wife Michelle, meanwhile, makes stops in San Juan and Old San Juan, Puerto Rico. Clinton is doing several television interviews today, including all three evening news programs and a spot on CNN. Husband Bill is in the Great Plains, stumping in Missoula, Montana before holding an event at a school in Pine Ridge, South Dakota. McCain, who was in Washington State yesterday, has no public events yet today.

Posted by Reid Wilson at 09:00 AM | Email Author | Permalink

Good Tuesday morning. As has been remarked, baseball is a lot better in high definition. That is, unless your team blows a five-run first inning to lose in ten. Aside from celebration of the Nats' win over the Mets last night, here's what Washington is watching:

-- The Senate is in session this morning, resuming roll call votes on a bill to reform flood insurance. The House takes up a number of measures under suspension, as well as a measure regulating credit and debit card receipt information and a bill on human rights in North Korea. The House Rules Committee meets today to formulate a rule on the farm bill, which is likely to cause a huge fight and will make its way into the presidential campaign. President Bush is off to the Middle East today, stopping first in Israel. It's the first day of a six-day tour.

-- Voters in West Virginia head to the polls today, and when the bell chimes at 7:30 p.m. Eastern time all the cable networks are likely to immediately call the state for Hillary Clinton. But even a huge win may not be enough. Yet again, the media is buying into Barack Obama's spin of expectations, thanks in some measure to those in Clinton's own camp. "Just wait 'til we win, like, 80-20," State Senate Majority Leader and Clinton-backer Harry Truman Chafin said yesterday, per CNN. That echoes Bill Clinton's own 80% comment over the weekend, as ABC captured it. This has been an issue with Team Clinton all along: Even when they try to manage expectations, they get so excited they predict bigger wins than they end up with. Meanwhile, anything over about 65% would be a big win for the candidate, but at this point it's probably too late to reset expectations.

-- Democrats have taken to warning Clinton not to smash her intraparty rival anymore, and the tone has in fact changed markedly. ABC News' Jake Tapper takes a look at some of those concerned with the final zingers Clinton might hit Barack Obama with, but West Virginia, and next week's election in Kentucky, is more of a final lap instead of a dogfight. The releases her campaign has issued haven't mentioned Obama by name since Friday, when she hit his health care plan during a stop in Oregon. The target yesterday was John McCain's climate change plan, like shooting fish in a barrel for a Democratic constituency, and perhaps the first serious step in an audition for a slot on the ticket.

-- McCain's plans offered a pretty serious split with the Bush Administration, including a cap-and-trade system that was first proposed by Democratic candidates early on in their primary. McCain also wants tough diplomacy targeting China and India, urging them to join global efforts to stop climate change, as AP's Glen Johnson wrote from Portland. Something to consider: Not only is the environment a favorite subject of granola-eating liberals in hiking boots and flannel in Oregon and Washington, it's also an emerging concern in the evangelical community. And as evangelical voters take a look at Barack Obama, McCain is reminded he's still got some work to do. (Sidenote: There were about four articles this weekend on evangelical voters leaving the GOP, including this one from the Seattle Times.)

-- Obama, though, has his own emerging religious problem. For many Jewish voters, U.S. support of Israel is perhaps the most crucial issue, and some still don't trust Obama. That's a large reason the McCain campaign thinks Florida is safely in their column. But Obama isn't going to give up such a crucial Democratic voting bloc that easily, and he spent a long time with The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg going over his feelings on Zionism, on settlements and several international issues affecting the Jewish state. As McCain struggles to be embraced by what should be his natural base, so too is Obama fighting to get what should be his own team in his corner.

-- The less-reported, but probably bigger, story today: Voters in Mississippi's First Congressional District head to the polls for the third time in two months today to elect a replacement for Senator Roger Wicker. The district is a heavily Republican area where the Democratic candidate, Prentiss County Chancery Clerk Travis Childers, came within about 400 votes of winning the April 22 preliminary round outright. Childers is facing Republican Southaven Mayor Greg Davis, who joined Vice President Dick Cheney at an Election Eve rally last night. Read all about the battle for the seat, including interviews with Childers and Davis, here.

-- By itself, a congressional special election, even one in which Democrats have the chance to pick up a GOP-leaning seat, isn't a huge story. But if Childers wins today, it will be the third special election this year that Democrats have won from Republicans, and it will leave the House GOP caucus reeling. As John Boehner and Tom Cole look toward their future in leadership, they can't afford another year of staggering losses. And if the Republican Party is losing seats that voted for President Bush by 25 points, every indication points to a disastrous environment for the party that hasn't caught a break for several cycles. A loss tonight could start some younger Republicans actively contemplating a challenge to Boehner's status at the helm of the House GOP. Oh, and it doesn't help that New York Rep. Vito Fossella may resign as well, forcing a special election in a seat that voted once for Al Gore and once for George Bush.

-- Gadfly Of The Day: Bob Barr is in the race for the Libertarian Presidential nomination, and some Republicans are already upset, the Washington Times reports today. The former Georgia Congressman and impeachment manager made his announcement yesterday at the National Press Club even as Republicans worried he could tilt a few states towards the Democrats. Over at the RCP Blog, Kyle Trygstad takes a look at just how much a threat Barr really is.

-- Today On The Trail: Obama starts his day in Washington before heading to a town hall meeting on the economy in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, south of St. Louis. Clinton is also waking up in Washington before heading to a victory rally in Charleston tonight. John McCain is still on his West Coast swing, hitting an environmental roundtable and a media availability in North Bend, about forty minutes east of Seattle. McCain will later fundraise with Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi.

Posted by Reid Wilson at 09:00 AM | Email Author | Permalink

Good Monday morning. The storm system that hit the Midwest this weekend is blowing through Washington at the moment, and campaign events in West Virginia could be rained out as a result. Here's what a wet Washington is watching today:

-- The Senate today meets for a period of morning business, with no roll call votes planned. The House has a pro forma session scheduled as well. Two days after seeing his daughter married, President Bush is back at the White House, where he will hand out Preserve America Presidential Awards in the Rose Garden. Vice President Cheney will rally the troops in Mississippi on behalf of Republican congressional candidate Greg Davis, a measure of just how conservative that district is.

-- A day before West Virginia's crucial (we jest) primary, in which twenty-eight delegates will likely go heavily for Hillary Clinton, the New York Senator will spend her time in the Mountain State. As evidence of his commitment, or lack thereof, Barack Obama has one stop in West Virginia today before quickly jetting off to Louisville, Kentucky, in advance of next week's primary. Obama's performance might begin to worry some of his advisers -- West Virginia is to Democrats as Ohio is to Republicans: If the candidate doesn't win the state, they're not winning the White House. And, the Financial Times reports, of the twenty-something people interviewed at a rally with Bill Clinton, none would say they'd vote for Obama in November, were he the nominee. The question to be determined: Is it Obama's problem if he loses the state to John McCain, or is it more evidence that the state is becoming like Alabama or North Carolina (willing to vote Democratic locally, but not federally)?

-- Why won't those voters back Obama in November? It's a Republican's dream, with voters citing flag pins and Jeremiah Wright and religions other than their own (one would think those last two are mutually exclusive). But as John McCain and Clinton continue to not bedeck themselves in flag memorabilia (Most of the media doesn't either, even as they ask Obama and his surrogates about the "issue;" campaign communications director Robert Gibbs pointed that out to the MSNBC gang this morning. None of the four people on set had pins on.), and as Obama maintains serious distance between himself and Wright, one has to consider that some voters may just be looking for an excuse to vote against Obama. McCain can't touch any of those controversies with a ten-foot pole, and he won't, but he's already benefiting from a bank of voters who just won't consider Obama.

-- Meanwhile, it's pretty obvious that Obama's got the nomination all wrapped up. Clinton will do well in West Virginia and in Kentucky, which votes a week from tomorrow, while Obama's probably got a healthy lead in Oregon. But with just over 130 delegates available in all three of those states combined, even then it's not enough for Clinton to catch up. Too, it's hard to continue a campaign that's $20 million in debt, as communications director Howard Wolfson said Clinton's is, per the Washington Post's Anne Kornblut. Still, maybe wins in the two Appalachian states help Clinton retire those campaign debts and exit the race with her head held high and her status in the Democratic Party largely intact. Most Clinton advisers, Kornblut writes, are privately asking the when, not if, question.

-- Obama continues to maintain that Clinton can stay in the race as long as she wants, but he's already looking ahead to November. Missouri proved crucial in both 2000 and 2004, and though their primary happened way back on Super Tuesday (a narrow Obama win, after a call reversal by the AP), Obama will hold a town hall meeting on economic issues in the state this coming Tuesday, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch learned in an interview with Senator Claire McCaskill, one of Obama's biggest backers. An ironic footnote: Obama will head to Cape Girardeau, birthplace of the man whose Operation Chaos might have delivered Indiana's narrow margin to Clinton, Rush Limbaugh.

-- Obama and McCain are already turning toward each other and targeting important blocs of voters, primarily independents and Latino voters, the New York Times wrote yesterday. And the two may even campaign together; McCain's team floated the idea of joint town halls last week, and this weekend in Oregon Obama called the concept "a great idea." But the battle will come down to traditional battlegrounds, like Ohio and Pennsylvania, as well as a newly-competitive field atop and west of the Rocky Mountains. And despite promises of a high-minded campaign, both already have ads defining their opponents shot, chopped and ready to go. Per the ads, Obama is young and inexperienced and McCain represents the third term of the most unpopular president in history.

-- John McCain is out west to start the week, stumping in Oregon and Washington State where he will unveil his views on environmental issues and climate change (a mixed record, the Post writes today). Throughout the campaign, McCain has spent time on climate change issues, and that may put the two Northwest states in play, if not in McCain's column. Remember, despite a liberal reputation, three of Oregon's five districts are Republican-leaning, and Al Gore won the state by just 7,000 votes out of a few more than 1.4 million cast. John Kerry did little better, winning by just four points. If Obama has to spend time on the West Coast for anything other than fundraising come October, that could be a sign McCain has the race completely wrapped up.

-- Word Of The Day: Now entering the political lexicon: Saltergram. In response to a Newsweek story that he saw as a little harsh on the GOP ("The Republican Party has been successfully scaring voters since 1968, when Richard Nixon built a Silent Majority out of lower- and middle-class folks frightened or disturbed by hippies and student radicals and blacks rioting in the inner cities."), top McCain aide Mark Salter fired off an angry letter to Newsweek chief Jon Meacham, as Jonathan Martin reports. Salter has long been closer to McCain than virtually anyone else, but he's gaining prominence and taking some heat off his candidate. If Karl Rove was Bush's Brain, maybe Salter is McCain's Temper. Perhaps that would absolve the candidate of having to demonstrate his own.

-- Today On The Trail: Politickin' in West Virginia, Clinton hits events in Montgomery, Clear Fork, Logan and Fairmont. Obama stops in Charleston for a rally before heading to a similar event in Louisville. And John McCain starts his day with an economic speech in Portland.