THE CANDIDATES:

John McCain... today's headlines with excerpts

McCain releases 2006, 2007 tax records*

Senate salary:  $161,675     $161,708
Book royalty income:   $80,390     $176,508
Social Security income:   $22,104     $23,157
U.S. Navy pension:   $56,496     $58,358

*Cindy McCain will not release her tax records

see also: McCain reports $258,000 in taxes

DNC looking for dirt on McCain

In early February, there was a sharp uptick in the number of FOIA [Freedom of Information Act] requests from the DNC with McCain as a specific target. February was about the same time McCain emerged as the front-runner and likely nominee.

... According to one filing, Alicia McClintock, a DNC operative, wrote DOI asking for “any and all records of communication (including but not limited to letters, written requests, reports, telephone records, electronic communication) between your agency and John McCain or his offices/staff from 1999 to present during which period he has been a United States Senator.”

Peggy Noonan: just one term for McCain?

..."It seems to me it would be a brilliant thing for [McCain] to announce he means to be a one-term president, that he means to have a clean, serious, one-term presidency in which he will do things those under pressure of re-election do not and cannot do. This would be received as a refreshment, a way out for the voters in a year they seem to want a way out. For many in the middle it would be a twofer. You get a good man, for only four years, and Mr. Obama gets to grow and deepen. He'll be better older."

Washington Times editorial: John McCain's math

"Don't get us wrong. We love tax cuts. And we love promises to use the veto to eliminate wasteful spending, especially corruption-inducing, politically self-serving, pork-barrel earmarks. But we also understand arithmetic, and we're concerned that Mr. McCain does not..."

see also:
McCain's plans for tax cuts, balanced budget don't add up

McCain readies unorthodox campaign

McCain will lean heavily on the well-funded Republican National Committee. He will merge key functions of his campaign hierarchy with the RNC while also relying on an unconventional structure of 10 regional campaign managers.

And finally — and perhaps most importantly — McCain will rely on free media to an unprecedented degree to get out his message in a fashion that aims to not only minimize his financial disadvantage but also drive a triangulated contrast among himself, the Democratic nominee and President Bush.

Senators trying to remove doubt on McCain's eligibility

...while opinions in the Senate about John McCain’s presidential qualifications can definitely be mixed, Democrats and Republicans hope to find unanimous agreement on at least one basic aspect of their colleague’s run for the White House – that he is unequivocally eligible to be president even though he was born in the Panama Canal Zone...

 

Hillary Clinton... today's headlines with excerpts

Noonan: next time she runs, she will wear skirts

"This is what I think will happen. At some future point Mrs. Clinton will leave, and at a more distant one she will try to come back. But more than one cycle will have to pass before she does. She'll need more than four years to shake off the impression she made in 2008. And this is how you'll know she's making another bid for the presidency. She will wear skirts."

Rasmussen: Hillary's Pa. lead down to just 3 points...

Clinton 47, Obama 44

Hillary's goal: win big in Pa., sow doubts over Obama

...even if Sen. Clinton wins strongly, she still will remain behind in delegates, so her goal must be to change the dynamic of the race, raising doubts about Sen. Obama's ability to carry states like Pennsylvania and lifting her chances of replicating the win in Indiana on May 6.

Bill: I didn't hear Hillary 'whining'

"[Obama staffers] were saying, 'Oh this is so negative, why are they doing this.' Well, they've been beatin' up on her for 15 months," Clinton said. "I didn't hear her whining when he said she was untruthful in Iowa, or called her the senator from Punjab... But you know, this is a contact sport. If you don't want to play, keep your uniform off." Clinton also noted that the Obama camp has "said some pretty rough things about me, too,

Clinton: debate is nothing like White House pressures

“Being asked tough questions in a debate is nothing like the pressures you face inside the White House,” Mrs. Clinton said in an interview with the Fox News affiliate in Philadelphia. “In fact, when the going gets tough, you just can’t walk away because we’re going to have some very tough decisions that we have to make. I think we need a president who can take whatever comes your way.”

She added, “That goes with the territory, having been inside the White House, I know the pressures inside the White House, I know how hard it is every single day.”

see also: Clinton attacks Obama's 'complaining'