Al Gore made his debut in the 2008 presidential campaign Monday night, encouraging voters to back Barack Obama because "take it from me, elections matter."

The former vice president's speech at the Joe Louis Arena was part endorsement and part blistering attack on the man who denied him the White House eight years ago.

"After eight years of incompetence, neglect and failure, we need change," Gore said. "After eight years when our Constitution has been dishonored and disrespected, we need changes."

In the first Washington Post-ABC News poll since the Democratic nomination contest ended, Obama and McCain are even among political independents, a shift toward the presumptive Republican nominee over the past month. On the issues, independents see McCain as more credible on fighting terrorism and are split evenly on who is the stronger leader and better on the Iraq war. But on other key attributes and issues -- including the economy -- Obama has advantages among independents.

McCain hopes to lure Clinton loyalists. But polls show they are staying Democratic...

Democrats face budget shortfall for convention

Facing an $11.6 million budget shortfall, organizers of the Democratic National Convention are cutting events while hoping Barack Obama's emergence as the likely presidential nominee will spur his vast army of donors to pony up.

The convention's Denver host committee reported it has deposited $29 million of the $40.6 million it promised to the Democratic National Committee by a Monday deadline. The overall convention budget is about $70 million.

THE CANDIDATES:

John McCain... today's headlines with excerpts

McCain: Let states decide on offshore drilling

With the price of gasoline surging past $4 a gallon in many parts of the country, Senator John McCain called today for the lifting of the federal moratorium on offshore oil drilling for states that want to permit it.

He said that he also favors giving states incentives to allow exploration, part of an energy proposal that he said would be “very helpful in the short term for resolving our energy crisis.”

McCain hits Obama on windfall profits tax

Sen. John McCain criticized Barack Obama's call for a windfall profits tax on the oil industry, predicting it would worsen America's dependence on foreign energy supplies.

"If that plan sounds familiar, it's because that was President Carter's big idea, too. ...I'm all for recycling, but it's better applied to paper and plastic than to the failed policies of the 1970s," the Republican presidential contender said in excerpts of a speech planned for Tuesday evening.

McCain also criticized Obama for supporting energy legislation sought by the Bush administration in 2005, a measure he called "a grab bag of corporate favors." McCain opposed the measure...

DNC to again file suit on McCain's matching funds

The DNC will today announce that they intend to file a lawsuit next week in U.S. District Court to spur an FEC inquiry over whether John McCain illegally withdrew from the federal financing system. 

The committee first issued a complaint to the FEC in February, but In April a federal judge ruled that, even though the FEC lacked a quorom, they still could convene before the end of the 120 days they're given to examine complaints.

Now, with those 120 days expiring on June 24th, the DNC is acting again in hopes a judge will compel the FEC to act on their complaint, as is allowed by law.

Are Dems talking about McCain's age in 'code'?

As some Republicans see it, Democrats are deliberately talking in code about the presumptive 71-year-old GOP nominee as part of an attempt to highlight his age.

“It is code; there is no question it is,” Ed Rollins, a Republican strategist who helped lead President Ronald Reagan’s 1984 reelection campaign, said when age surfaced as an issue. “They are trying to raise doubts.”

MSNBC host Joe Scarborough repeatedly argued on his show last week that the Obama campaign was portraying McCain as a “doddering, old, confused fool. He needs to go to Miami Beach and play checkers.”  

Barack Obama said Monday he wants American workers to be able to compete in a global economy.

"Not only is it impossible to turn back the tide of globalization, but efforts to do so can make us worse off," the Illinois senator told a crowd of more than 1,000 at Kettering University in Flint that cheered loudly when he talked of his plans for universal health insurance, grants for students to attend college and more support for research and development..."

Six percent in the new poll call gas and energy prices the single most important issue in the presidential election now underway. In February, under 1 percent highlighted the issue as tops. Asked which candidate they trust to deal with the situation, 50 percent said Barack Obama and 30 percent said John McCain.

Former Clinton campaign manager joins Obama team

The Obama campaign is about to make its first big hire out of the campaign of Hillary Rodham Clinton. Patti Solis Doyle, who was Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign manager until she was ousted in a staff shake up in February, will join Mr. Obama’s campaign as the chief of staff to the vice-presidential candidate – whoever he (or she) will be, campaign officials said.

Ms. Doyle will take the position before Mr. Obama announces his choice for a running-mate

Senator Barack Obama said Monday he intends to visit Iraq and Afghanistan before the November election...

They both ran for the White House, though one got closer—much closer—than the other. They both sit on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee with their junior colleague Barack Obama. And if the Illinois senator is elected president in November, they both apparently would like to be his secretary of State. A source close to Massachusetts' John Kerry, who asked for anonymity when discussing the senator's political aspirations, says the Foreign Relations Committee's third-ranking Democrat (and 2004 presidential runner-up) is keen to be the nation's top diplomat.

That also could well be the case for Connecticut Sen. Christopher Dodd, the committee's second-ranking Democrat (and 2008 presidential also-ran).

The committee's chairman, Delaware Sen. Joseph Biden, is also frequently mentioned by Democratic insiders as a potential secretary of State—though, like Dodd, he might have his eyes on a bigger prize: the vice presidency. (Kerry does not appear to harbor veep aspirations.)