From NBC's Lauren Appelbaum
In next month's Fast Company, Ellen McGirt examines the Obama campaign as an emerging successful business model. McGirt both investigates how Obama's campaign approach challenges both conventional political assumptions and conventional business assumptions and also challenges "any forward-looking business" to examine the campaign's successes "from marketing strategies and leadership styles to the future of the American workplace."

McGirt writes that Obama's ability to connect with and mobilize the 18 to 29 age group through new media and online social networks acts as a base for his success. On a personal level, the presidential hopeful uses a Web cam to keep in touch with his wife and daughters while on the road. And on the campaign level, he capitalizes both on his own Web site, which allows supporters to create their own content and interact with one another, and in external content including viral videos created by supporters such as Obama Girl (though she hasn't said she's voting for him necessarily) and the Black Eyed Peas' Will.i.am.

While several people McGirt interviewed pointed out the difficulty in controlling the message from so many external sources, McGirt also writes the Obama campaign oversees the content posted on its Web site and responds to posts on other sites. The overwhelming success of Obama's online strategies, with credit due to outside aid, shows in his ability to convert Web hits into donations.

The crux of the article points to Obama's ability to connect, and that "this movement is actually a conversation to which everyone is invited." When Hillary Clinton started her campaign, she told voters through a Web video and her stump speech that she wanted to start a conversation with them. McGirt's article, however, points out Obama has been more successful.

"Obama communicates that he loves people, and Clinton communicates that she loves policy," said Harvard Senior Associate Dean John Quelch said in the article.

Craig Newmark of Craigslist is quoted as stressing Obama's leadership style as a reason for his support. "I see him as a leader rather than a boss," Newmark said. He explains a leader as someone who inspires people to work on their own; a boss, conversely, orders people to work because that work is part of each person's contract.

McGirt ends her article with a warning to her readers, whether Obama wins the nomination or the presidency or neither. "There is no question that the brand of Obama -- what he represents to the next generation of Americans -- is important. A business that ignores this message does so at its own peril."

"The Brand Called Obama" will be published in Fast Company's April edition.

From NBC's Mike Viqueira
A Democratic source in Washington provides the following letter from a major Democratic donor as evidence that yesterday's "shakedown" letter to Speaker Pelosi is having an effect antithetical to its intention.

Leslie Walker Burlock of San Francisco writes yesterday to Nancy Pelosi pledging the max $28,000 to the DCCC. The Dem source says Ms. Burlock wrote after learning of the letter from the group of heavy hitters, a move that Burlock disagreed with.

I spoke with Ms. Burlock by phone. She says that yes, she agrees with Nancy Pelosi's stance on superdelegates, and that yes, she is an Obama supporter. But she demurred when asked several different ways whether or not her pledge comes as a rebuttal to the letter from the others. She didn't deny it, however.

P.S. - Ms. Burlock says she hasn't yet sent the dough.

The letter:
March 26, 2008

Sincerely,
Leslie Walker Burlock

*** UPDATE *** MoveOn.org, which has endorsed Obama, has also weighed in with the following letter to supporters:

Dear MoveOn member,

This is pretty outrageous: a group of Clinton-supporting big Democratic donors are threatening to stop supporting Democrats in Congress because Nancy Pelosi said that the people, not the superdelegates, should decide the Presidential nomination.1

It's the worst kind of insider politics—billionaires bullying our elected leaders into ignoring the will of the voters.

But when we all pool our resources, together we're stronger than the fat cats. So let's tell Nancy Pelosi that if she keeps standing up for regular Americans, thousands of us will have her back. And we can more than match whatever the CEOs and billionaires refuse to contribute. Clicking here will add your name to our statement:

http://pol.moveon.org/democracy/

The statement reads: "The Democratic nomination should be decided by the voters—not by superdelegates or party high-rollers. We've given money—and time—to progressive candidates and causes, and we'll support Speaker Pelosi and others who stand up for Democracy in the Democratic Party."

We're launching it today with our friends at the blog OpenLeft.com. Our goal is to deliver tens of thousands of signatures to Nancy Pelosi and other Democratic leaders later this week.

A few weeks ago, Speaker Pelosi told ABC News, "If the votes of the superdelegates overturn what happened in the elections, it would be harmful to the Democratic Party."2

She's right, but Clinton's top fundraisers want her to back off. According to the New York Times, their letter "carries an ominous tone, which stops just short of delivering a threat. The donors remind Ms. Pelosi that they are 'strong supporters' of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee."3 Their language was careful, but their implied threat was universally understood. (Roll Call carried this headline: "Clinton donors threaten Pelosi and DCCC."4)

They're the old guard, and this is how the Democratic Party used to function—the big donors called the shots. But the small donor revolution has changed that. The 20 people who signed this letter have given Democrats an average of $2.4 million per year over the last 10 years.5 Small donations now dwarf that: In February alone, Obama and Clinton raised $47 million in small donations.6

Still, old habits die hard. We need to send a strong signal that we, the small donors, will back Democratic leaders who have the courage to stand up and do the right thing. Please sign our statement today.

http://pol.moveon.org/democracy/

Thanks for all you do,

–Noah, Justin, Ilyse, Wes, and the MoveOn.org Political Action Team
  Thursday, March 27th, 2008
   Sources:

1. "Clinton Donors Warn on Superdelegate Fight," New York Times, March 27, 2008.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/27/us/politics/27dems.html

2. Ibid.

3. "Clinton donors ask Pelosi to Back Off," New York Times Caucus Blog, March 26, 2008.
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=3534&id=&t=240

4. "Clinton Donors Threaten Pelosi and DCCC," Roll Call, March 26, 2008.
http://www.rollcall.com/issues/1_1/breakingnews/22683-1.html

5. "Pelosi's hecklers gave $24 million," Politico, March 27, 2008.
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=3535&id=&t=242

6. "February Fundraising Frenzy for Presidential Candidates," Campaign Finance I

From NBC's Lindsey Pritzlaff
One criticism of Democrats in past elections is that they have railed against President Bush on Iraq without having a plan of their own. But 38 Democratic House challengers along with four Senate contenders have decided to run on a common platform outlining a strategy of withdrawal from Iraq.
 
Several of these candidates held a conference call today to discuss what they call, "A Responsible Plan to End the War in Iraq." The plan was introduced about a week and a half ago, after six months of preparation. The plan combines existing legislation in Congress, packaged by Darcy Burner, a candidate for Washington's eighth congressional district, with assistance from national security experts and retired generals.
 
"This plan offers a path out of Iraq. This administration has built a parking lot to keep us there," said Eric Massa, who is running in New York's 29th district. Massa added that much of the American public falsely believes that their only choices are between cutting and running and staying forever. 
 
"Over the course of running for office, the first question I was being asked was not, 'Are you going to end the War?' but, how to end the war in Iraq," Burner said, adding the plan "articulates what a responsible end looks like."
 
The plan calls for a combination of political, diplomatic and economic power to responsibly end the war. What the plan does not include is a timeline for withdrawal. Burner said there is too much of a focus on the military portion of the policy and, therefore, on troop levels and timelines. The plan does address the need to begin a draw down, but "detailed logistics need to come from military leaders," Burner added.
 
There may be support from congressional hopefuls across the country, but no leading Democrat has yet to back the platform. For one, Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, proposed his own bipartisan measure in September, which passed overwhelmingly in the Senate.

"They [Congressional Democrats] have certainly done nothing to hurt us," said Burner, but added, "This was not driven inside the beltway." Burner said she found that part of voters' frustration is they feel people inside Washington, D.C. don't get it.

*** UPDATE *** Here's a link to the actual plan.

[EDITOR'S NOTE: An earlier version of this post noted that Biden's Senate office had no comment on the plan. But the office says they may review the plan first and then issue a comment.]

From NBC's Libby Leist
The State Department confirms that two U.S. citizens have died in Iraq this week from indirect fire by rocket and mortar attacks in the Green Zone.

The first person, a contractor for the US Army, died on Monday, March 24, and this afternoon, we have confirmation that another U.S. citizen has died from the latest round of fire.

The State Department says of this latest death "no further details, pending notification of next of kin."

*** UPDATE *** The Iraqi government has ordered a full (24 hours per day) curfew for Baghdad through Sunday. While curfews have been the norm over the past three years, this is the first curfew in Baghdad since mid-January.

From NBC/NJ's Athena Jones
RALEIGH, N.C. -- Hillary Clinton hit Republican rival John McCain on the economy again today with a return to her "3 am" phone call analogy. The senator said it was time to "level the playing field for the middle class" and argued McCain would ignore the ringing phone in an economic crisis.

"Sometimes the phone rings at 3 am in the White House, and it's an economic crisis," she said. "And we need president who is ready and willing and able to answer that call. I read the speech that Sen. McCain gave the other day, which set forth his plan which does virtually nothing to ease the credit crisis or the housing crisis. It seems like if the phone were ringing he would just let it ring and ring and ring."

VIDEO: Hillary Clinton says Republican nominee-in-waiting John McCain isn't prepared to handle an economic emergency. Watch her entire speech.

Clinton called the Arizona senator "a friend," but noted he had admitted that he did not know much about economics. She said he would rather ignore the credit and mortgage crises facing Americans instead of solving them.

"I think we've had enough of a president who didn't know enough about economics," she said. "I don't think we can afford four more years of that kind of inaction."

Earlier this week, Clinton compared McCain to Depression-era President Herbert Hoover for saying the government should not bail out or reward banks or small borrowers who "act irresponsibly."

The former first lady has consistently sought to portray herself as the candidate best prepared to manage the economy and often mentions the number of jobs created and the number of people lifted out of poverty during her husband's administration, an effort to link herself to what many see as his economic successes. She has even taking to joking lately that when people say they don't want to go back to the 90s, she wants to know which part they didn't like "the peace or the prosperity"?

The hits on McCain came during a speech on a new plan to spend $12.5 billion over five years to help support job training and grants for displaced workers and on-the-job training and educational opportunities. Clinton has been criticized for not doing enough to explain how she would pay for all the programs she has proposed. According to an aide, this new plan would be financed using a portion of the savings from a Corporate Subsidy Commission, a group that would identify and eliminate outdated corporate subsidies.

The stop in Raleigh was part of a six-day tour through North Carolina, Indiana and Pennsylvania that will focus on economic issues.

The event began 1 hour, 15 minutes late and the senator seemed to rush through the speech, barely pausing for applause lines. At the beginning of her speech, Clinton quipped about Republicans being the party of backward movement and not progress.

"Years ago, when I first got involved in politics," Clinton said, "I heard that old saying that, being, running for office is like driving a car. If you want to go forward, you put it in D; if you want to go backwards, you put it in R."

*** UPDATE *** The RNC sends this along: "Obama and Clinton's economic plans are what you expect from two senators who think that big government is the solution for just about every problem. Obama and Clinton's plans for more taxes, spending and regulations will lead to fewer homeowners and jobs. Instead of misrepresenting and attacking McCain's proposals, Obama and Clinton should explain why they voted earlier this month to raise taxes on Americans earning as little as $31,850."

From NBC/NJ's Aswini Anburajan
NEW YORK -- Obama called for an overhaul of the nation's regulatory system today, arguing that "what was bad for Main Street was bad for Wall Street," and that a "loss of the sense of shared prosperity" had caused the current economic crisis.

"Pain trickled up," Obama said of how the increased rate of home foreclosures among individual homeowners had caused a downturn in the market as a whole.

Providing a historical rationale for increased government oversight of financial markets, Obama argued that the American economy had prospered and sustained itself because government had "guided the market's invisible hand with a higher principle."

VIDEO: Obama delivers an economic speech in New York, proposing an additional economic stimulus package and relief for homeowners.

He called for six principles for greater regulation and modernization of the nation's economic institutions, including:
(1) Government oversight for any entity that borrows from the federal government;
(2) An overall reform of the regulations governing financial institutions;
(3) Streamlining the nation's regulatory institutions;
(4) Regulations should be applied to what an organization does rather than what it is (e.g. financial regulations regarding sub-prime loans only applied to banks, allowing mortgage brokers to issue these loans without oversight);
(5) The SEC actively investigating market manipulation;
(6) And the creation of a financial oversight commission that identifies risks to the nation's financial system.

In calling for the oversight, Obama made a populist appeal.

"If we can extend a hand to banks on Wall Street, we can extend a hand to Americans who are struggling," he said, referring to the Fed's recent bailout of Bear Stearns. He also said that ordinary Americans had experienced the effects of a recession for the past several years and said that this was the only period in American history where incomes had not grown along with corporate profits.

He was introduced by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who told the crowd that "the federal government had become a poster child of irresponsibility." Bloomberg claimed that the current crisis was "an enormous challenge of leadership" and then told the audience that the stage on which Obama would give his speech was the one on which "Lincoln provided a brilliant defense of his position on slavery."

In calling for a more active government role, Obama contrasted his approach with Republican nominee John McCain's. 

"John McCain recently announced his own plan, and it amounts to little more than watching this crisis happen," Obama said. "While this is consistent with Senator McCain's determination to run for George Bush's third term, it won't help families who are suffering, and it won't help lift our economy out of recession."

McCain in turn released a written statement in which he said he was open "to considering any and all proposals" that tried to help those with foreclosed homes. Offering his own rationale for a governmental approach, he argued that aid should go to the "truly needy" to "prevent systemic economic risk" and enact reforms that increased transparency.  Attacking his Democratic opponents, he also said, "[W]hat is not necessary is multi-billion dollar bailout for big banks and speculators, as Senators Clinton and Obama have proposed."

Obama said today he agreed with McCain that the government shouldn't reward irresponsible borrowers with a bailout but claimed that McCain was turning a blind eye to individual homeowners who had not tried to profit on the system. He again touted Sen. Chris Dodd's proposal, which would create a Housing Security Program to help with buyouts of existing mortgages, so those facing foreclosure could pay mortgages at more modified interest rates.

"It asks both sides to sacrifice, while preventing a long-term collapse that could have enormous ramifications for the most responsible lenders and borrowers, as well as the American people as a whole," Obama said of Dodd's plan today. "That is what Senator McCain ignores."
 
Tomorrow, Obama will take his economic message on the road beginning a six-day bus tour through Pennsylvania.

From NBC's Domenico Montanaro
Hart/McInturff, the group that conducts the NBC News-Wall Street Journal poll, explains what "oversample" means.

TO: NBC News And The Wall Street Journal
FROM: Hart/McInturff
DATE: March 27, 2008
RE: Sample For March 24-25 Survey

As you know, the sample for the March 24-25 poll on race included an "oversample" of 100 African American voters. There has been some confusion as to exactly how these extra interviews were integrated into the survey; we hope this memorandum will clear up any misconceptions.

The main sample for the survey was a cross section of 700 registered voters nationally. As is the case with all of our usual polls, this sample is statistically representative of voters across the country, accurately reflecting the gender, age, educational, geographical, and racial makeup of the electorate. The column in the topline document labeled "All Voters", as well as nearly all of the subgroups listed in the survey crosstabs, are among these cross section of 700. Eleven percent (11%) of these interviews -- or 77 interviews -- were with African Americans, which accurately reflects African Americans' proportion of the electorate. Thus, African Americans are NOT over-represented in our national sample.

In addition to this national cross section, we interviewed an extra 100 African Americans to analyze the opinions of this group with a greater degree of statistical reliability. We combined these 100 only with the 77 African Americans that naturally fell into our national sample, for a total of 177 interviews with African Americans; these extra interviews were not combined with the full national sample of 700. The column in the topline document labeled "African Americans" shows the responses of these 177 respondents, as do the subgroups in the crosstabs for African Americans, African-American men, and African-American women.

The table below shows the margins of error for the three groups whose responses are shown in the topline document:

National cross section of voters: 700 interviews, +/- 3.7%
White voters: 520 interviews, +/- 4.3%
African-American voters: 177 interviews, +/- 7.4%

From NBC's Domenico Montanaro
Obama and Clinton both delivered major addresses on the economy today. After Obama's speech, the Clinton campaign criticized it in an e-mail to the media:

"Presidents have to do more than announce principles," writes Clinton policy director Neera Tanden in the statement. "They have to solve problems. At a time of crisis in our financial markets, Senator Obama announced a series of broad, vague principles, while offering no new concrete solutions to provide Americans with greater confidence in the market or keep them in their homes.  The contrast could not be clearer -- on Monday, Senator Clinton announced a detailed, specific plan to address the housing and credit crisis.  On Tuesday, Senator McCain announced that he had no plan.  And today, Senator Obama offered just words."

Obama spokesman Bill Burton responded this way: "We've all seen that the Clinton campaign never lets the facts get in the way of a good story, but they know full well that Barack Obama has offered thoughtful, detailed proposals to solve the housing crisis, one of which the New York Times just called the best idea from any candidate in the race. Senator Clinton's new proposal this week amounted to calling for a meeting, so it's pretty obvious that her latest kitchen sink attack is nothing more than just politics."

From NBC's Pete Williams
NBC's Chris Donovan points out that Puerto Rico's governor, Aníbal Acevedo Vilá, who was indicted today and charged with election law violations, is a Democratic party superdelegate who has endorsed Obama.

Gov. Acevedo Vilá and 12 of his supporters are accused of getting Puerto Rico businessmen to make illegal, unreported contributions to pay off debts from previous campaigns -- debts he never reported, another potential violation.

From NBC's Domenico Montanaro
We'll have more on Obama's and Clinton's economic speeches later today, but below is McCain's preemptive attack, sent out earlier. Notice, the campaign includes both Obama AND Clinton this time.

By the way, intriguing stuff when Obama took the podium after NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg introduced him. Obama was effusive in his praise for Bloomberg, but said the reason he bought breakfast that morning is because he expects "payback." "I'm no dummy," Obama said, adding, "There are a lot of good steakhouses in New York." METAPHOR ALERT? By payback does he just mean a steak?

Also, anyone else notice Obama used the "R" word. "As most experts know, our economy is in a recession," Obama said.

That's been the subject of debate. The definition of a recession, as CNBC's Maria Bartiromo pointed out on Meet the Press this past Sunday, is two consecutive quarters of negative growth. That hasn't happened yet, and whatever it's labeled, everyone agrees the economy is at least in a slowdown or downturn.

Here's McCain's criticism/pre-emptive reaction to Clinton and Obama's speeches:
"On Tuesday, I addressed the housing crisis and its devastating impact on our financial markets and the household budgets of millions of hardworking Americans. The fact is that there are about 4 million homeowners in danger of losing their homes. We have a responsibility to take action to help those among them who are deserving homeowners, and as I said this week, I am committed to considering any and all proposals to do so. Any action must further look to the future to make certain this never happens again.

"As I said on Tuesday, I believe the role of government is to help the truly needy, prevent systemic economic risk, and enact reforms that prevent the kind of crisis we are currently experiencing from ever happening again. Those reforms should focus on improving transparency and accountability in our capital markets -- both of which were lacking in the lead-up to the current situation.

"However, what is not necessary is a multi-billion dollar bailout for big banks and speculators, as Senators Clinton and Obama have proposed. There is a tendency for liberals to seek big government programs that sock it to American taxpayers while failing to solve the very real problems we face. 

"This is a complex problem that deserves a careful, balanced approach that helps the homeowners in trouble, not big banks and speculators that acted irresponsibly. I again call on our lending institutions, where possible, to step up and help Americans who are hurting in this crisis."

From NBC/NJ's Athena Jones
Here are excerpts from Hillary Clinton's speech in North Carolina today where she'll hit McCain and talk about job training.

Of course, the speech as given could include slightly different language, but this gives us at least some indication of where she's heading with her criticism:

Sometimes the phone rings at 3am in the White House and it's an economic crisis. And we need a president who is ready and willing to answer that call. But I read Senator McCain's plan which does virtually nothing to ease the credit crisis or the housing crisis. The phone is ringing and he would just let it ring and ring.

Senator McCain is a friend of mine but he said himself, "The issue of economics is not something I've understood as well as I should." He'd rather ignore the credit crisis and mortgage crisis -- or blame middle class families instead of offering solutions on their behalf.

We've had enough of a president who didn't know enough about economics, and didn't do enough for the middle class. I don't think we can afford four more years. I believe we have to answer the call and act aggressively to deal with the housing and credit crises. That's the kind of president we need after eight years of George Bush.

While we are fighting to create jobs, and keep them here in America, today I'm announcing that I will commit $2.5 billion each year to help workers train for new jobs and improve their skills for their existing jobs as well.

We are competing in a new global economy, but our policies to equip American worker for the twenty-first century are stuck back in the twentieth. When it comes to retraining assistance, our government is more focused on how you lost your job than how you can find a new one. And while we have been rightly focused on trying to help people who are out of work, there's been too little thought and effort to help people gain new skills while they still have their existing jobs -- so they can move up or move on to higher-wage positions.

I will make Universal Worker Adjustment Assistance available to every single dislocated worker.  No American should feel left behind -- if you are willing to work hard and retrain, we'll reward your hard work with help getting trained, finding a new job, and making the adjustment to a new field or industry.

We'll also create new tools and options for you to get job skills or a college education while working. You shouldn't have to produce a pink slip to get help training for a new, higher-paying job. I'll create Pell Grants that people can use to retrain and attend college while working.

And the government should not wait until it's too late to act. I am proposing an innovative new program. It's called "The Pre-emptive Training Initiative." When a factory closes its doors, or a plant moves overseas, that's a shock for families -- and for whole communities. We shouldn't wait until the lock is placed on the gates to recognize the problem.

From NBC/NJ's Adam Aigner-Treworgy
McCain will host a $1,000 a plate fundraiser in Salt Lake City today with Mitt Romney, the Salt Lake Tribune reports. Romney will then travel with the McCain campaign to Denver. 

"Romney, who dropped out of the race after poor showings in the primaries, received nearly 90 percent of the Utah GOP vote on Feb. 5, while McCain had just 5 percent," the Tribune writes. "Romney is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as are more than 60 percent of the state's residents.
   
"While McCain raised about $183,000 from Utahns since January 2007, Romney raised millions. Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., who has been the subject of media speculation as a possible McCain running mate, will be in attendance, organizers said." 

From Chuck Todd and Domenico Montanaro
*** Myth buster: Pollster Peter Hart calls the NBC/WSJ poll a "myth buster" survey; it really breaks down a lot of the myths we've been hearing over the last week like: (1) that the Wright controversy was the beginning of the end for the Obama campaign -- certainly not the case, but there's no telling how much more Wright stuff comes out; (2) It was surprising how few people knew who Wright was (about half). People who followed story, though, were really disturbed (55%); (3) The premise that the Clinton campaign would turn out to be a stronger campaign or stronger among independents. (4) That the bar facing a black candidate would be higher than for a woman or a person over 70; There's a bar, but not higher; (5) That somehow this Wright story is over. If you look at it overall numbers, you can be misled. Among 29% of ALL voters, they need more answers from Obama. They have hesitations and uncertainties; they want to know, "Is he safe?" -- both in the sense of credentials/experience but also in terms of life story. The Wright controversy, the poll indicates, has taken a bit of the shine off Obama, brought him out of the stratosphere, notes pollster Bill McInturff. Clinton also faces a similar amount of uncertainties, but among a different group of people.
 
*** Not the one you'd think: But the poll didn't indicate the past couple of weeks' news hurt Obama the most; it was Clinton (sniper fire?). She's sporting the lowest personal ratings of the campaign. Her 37% positive rating is the lowest the NBC/WSJ poll has recorded since March 2001, two months after she was elected to the U.S. Senate from New York. As for the damage this controversy did or didn't do to Obama, it's a mixed bag. Yes, Obama saw some of his numbers go down slightly among certain voting groups, most notably Republicans. But he's still much more competitive with independent voters when matched up against John McCain than Hillary Clinton is. And he still sports a net-positive personal rating of 49-32, which is down only slightly from two weeks ago, when it was 51-28. Again, the biggest shift in those negative numbers was among Republicans. 

VIDEO: NBC Political Director Chuck Todd explains the new NBC News/WSJ poll, saying Obama maintained a good perception among voters, despite the Wright controversy.
 
*** McCain-ocrats? For the second poll in a row, more than 20% of Clinton and Obama supporters say they would support McCain when he's matched up against the other Democrat. There is clearly some hardening of feelings among some of the most core supporters of both Democrats, though it may be Obama voters, who are bitterer in the long run.
 
*** Carolina on my mind: By the way, Clinton also talks economy again today, and does it in North Carolina. With her foray into NC and Bill's all-out campaigning in a bunch of other post-PA states, all signs are pointing to this going on at least through the last contests in June. But keep a particular eye on Clinton in Carolina. This is becoming more and more of a must-win state; A combination of a 15-20 point win in Pennsylvania and an upset in the Tar Heel state would shake up this race in the same way Obama's 11-contest win streak in February did.
 
*** Shakedown: Why didn't the Clinton campaign get superdelegates to sign on to that letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi rather than donors? Doesn't this letter coming only from major donors make it look like a threat or a shakedown? Wouldn't this letter coming from fellow superdelegates have had more impact? One Dem operative who doesn't have a horse in this fight reminds us: "Members of Congress -- who are superdelegates -- make up the DCCC. Threatening the DCCC is essentially threatening the very superdelegates HRC's trying to court. The HRC donor letter will just push undeclared superdelegates in Congress leaning toward Obama to endorse him sooner. It also reinforces the notion that the Clintons will destroy the party to win the WH. I just don't get it."
 
*** Supers turned off: A handful of undecided and pledged superdelegates come forward to tell NBC/NJ's Matthew Berger that her campaign's tactics in recent weeks are doing more harm than good. 
 
*** A fall preview: Those who love the Veepstakes will enjoy today's Obama speech, not for the substance but for the person who will introduce him: Michael Bloomberg. While the mayor says he's not endorsing anyone (yet?), this is the second time Bloomberg has given Obama a high profile photo-op (remember the meeting at that diner a few months back?). As for Obama's economic speech, per the campaign, "Obama takes on special interests for housing/economic crisis; lays out principles for new regulatory framework." Obama, himself, previewed the speech on the plane yesterday. "I will be giving some, I will be outlining, my thoughts on the current state of the economy. How we got there and some very specific prescriptions, what helped trigger the financial crisis and the financial problems." But it will be the potential of Obama-Bloomberg that could be the most important take-away. In fact, considering that anti-Israel sentiments being expressed by the Rev. Wright in these newly circulating church bulletins (see Andrea Mitchell's reporting on TODAY below in the Obama section). A fortunate thing for Obama is at least these church bulletins aren't video. The idea of a Jewish running mate might end up making more and more sense for Obama as the summer wears on.
 
*** Hooked? Also, did McCain take the bait? Back from his vacation, Obama made a point of trying to shift the focus to him vs. McCain again. (No talk of Hillary, by the way.) Then the McCain camp releases a statement bashing Obama this morning before his speech, calling this election a "clear choice." (Again, no mention of Hillary.)
 
*** Swing-state campaigning: McCain campaigns today in Colorado, a state particularly the Obama campaign has been selling as a potential Dem Red State pick up. We've already seen McCain in Michigan. How many Dems are thinking that the longer this Clinton-Obama contest goes on, the harder it is becoming for Democrats to campaign and make in-roads in those potential pick up states? The DNC tries to do its part, attacking McCain's viability out West, including Colorado and even his home state, in a conference call today with state Democratic Party leaders from those two states and Utah and Nevada.
 
*** On the trail: Clinton makes three stops in North Carolina, including the economic address; McCain raises money in Salt Lake City and Denver, where he also will take questions from reporters; Obama speaks on the economy at Cooper Union in New York City; Bill Clinton hits the trail hard in Pennsylvania with five stops; and so does Chelsea with three of her own in PA.
 
Countdown to Pennsylvania: 26 days
Countdown to North Carolina, Indiana: 40 days
Countdown to Election Day 2008: 222 days
Countdown to Inauguration Day 2009: 299 days
 
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"As reassuring as the poll is for Sen. Obama, Mr. Hart and Mr. McInturff agreed that it did indicate that a substantial number of voters question whether the first-term senator would be a safe choice, or whether more needs to be known about him. Mr. McInturff said some voters are wondering, 'Do we know enough about this guy?' the Wall Street Journal writes.
 
"While the senator's support among Democrats is little changed, he did slip among conservatives and Republican voters, groups that had shown some attraction to Sen. Obama's message of changing partisan politics in Washington. 'I think the survey does indicate that this has taken a little of the patina off Sen. Obama,' Mr. McInturff said."

For more, click here.

PENNSYLVANIA: 4/22 (158 delegates)
It looks like the Philly Dem Committee may stay out of the Dem primary and not endorse either candidate; that's good news for Obama as most of the Dem establishment in the state has been siding with Clinton. Of course, "For Clinton and Obama, a City Committee endorsement would probably carry little weight because swaying voters in a presidential race is difficult. The only practical advantage, political consultant Larry Ceisler said, might be logistical, in that the Democratic machinery might 'help get people to the polls, make sure there is no trouble at the polls, and be the eyes and ears on the ground.'
 
"That is probably not enough to make either campaign press too hard for an endorsement, which goes well with the sentiment voiced this week by ward leaders."
 
Some other notes from NBC/NJ's Matthew Berger: Rendell told the Clinton campaign to hold off on visiting Pittsburgh until they had garnered the endorsements of both Mayor Luke Ravenstahl and Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato. His heavy campaigning for Clinton has angered some Republicans who say he isn't spending enough time on state issues and Democrats who say he isn't doing enough to elect Democrats to the state legislature. 
 
Pennsylvania is 30 percent Catholic, and Obama is planning small roundtable meetings with Catholic voters to focus on economy, jobs and healthcare issues, as well as play down the Rev. Jeremiah Wright issue. "Clinton backers Kathleen Kennedy Townsend and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. last week wrote a letter to Pennsylvania Catholics emphasizing her plans on health care, mortgage foreclosures and fuel costs." 
 
NORTH CAROLINA: 5/6 (115 delegates)
Some notes from NBC/NJ's Carrie Dann: Today kicks off a three-day Clinton blitz that will see all three members of the former First Family in the Tar Heel State between now and Saturday. Today, Hillary Clinton hits Raleigh, Winston-Salem, and Fayetteville; tomorrow, Bill Clinton visits Greensboro and points west in a marathon five-stop day; and Saturday, Chelsea Clinton joins former senator John Edwards in addressing the state's Young Democrats organization. Gone are the days of local speculation that Hillary would be writing off North Carolina; reporters now are too busy Mapquesting the trip between Kannapolis and Salisbury and praying that they still have time to profile their third Republican gubernatorial candidate this week. 
 
The News & Observer leads its coverage of Obama's Greensboro stop yesterday with the senator's criticism of Clinton's lobbying ties while the Winston-Salem Journal tops its story with Obama's slams on John McCain's economic policy.  
 
Per the Winston-Salem Journal's Trail Mix blog, Obama mentioned McCain's name eight times in his speech yesterday, Bush's 10 times, and Hillary Clinton's only twice. 
 
The North Carolina Democratic Party has officially moved the date of this year's Jefferson-Jackson Dinner to May 2nd, four days before the state's primary contest. The Party hopes that both of its presidential candidates will attend the fundraising event, although neither has formally accepted the invitation yet. 
 
Check out this oh-so-interesting quote from Obama, who told local reporters in Greensboro yesterday that he has personally experienced racial discrimination but nothing that has made him "angry or bitter." "'The kinds of experience that I have are the ones that are, I think, shared by a number of other folks: security guards following you around when you're shopping, being stopped when you're going the speed limit and being questioned,' said the senator, per the Greensboro News and Record, 'But nothing that I think would justify me being particularly angry or bitter.'" 
 
"Martin Luther King Jr. was a REPUBLICAN." That's the wording emblazoned on a new highway billboard that's attracting much attention and debate. The message, sponsored by the National Black Republican Association, prompted the state's Republican Party Chairman to admit that he "almost broke my neck trying to look at it." He later applauded the sentiment but conceded that "I would suspect Dr. King would be a Democrat today." 
 
FLORIDA/MICHIGAN
Yesterday, "A federal judge Wednesday struck down part of a state law that would have given the state Republican and Democratic parties -- and no one else -- party preference lists of voters who participated in the January presidential primaries. State Elections Director Chris Thomas said there are no plans to appeal the decision. He said the state would not give the lists to anyone, including the state Republican and Democratic parties, even if they file a Freedom of Information Act request.
 
"The decision was closely watched by political observers, especially Democratic supporters of Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York, who have been pushing for a do-over nominating contest in Michigan. One theory went that if Edmunds threw out any portion of the law, it might invalidate the entire primary and spark calls for a second Democratic election of some sort. Edmunds said she was not voiding the primary results."

Clinton makes her first stop in NC today, a state that is becoming more and more of a must-win if she is to complete a comeback. NBC/NJ's Athena Jones reports she will announce a new proposal to support job training, during a stop at a technical college in Raleigh, NC Thursday morning. The new plan would cost $12.5 billion over five years. The stop will be the first of a six-day tour through North Carolina, Indiana and Pennsylvania, where she'll focus on the economy, according to a briefing by her campaign staff.
 
The idea is to demonstrate Clinton's ability to be a steward of the economy and she will be highlighting state and local initiatives that she believes are working. The focus on job training and re-training, is something North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley has also pushed and Clinton argues the federal government should partner with state and local governments on these kinds of initiatives.
 
The plan would make job training available to displaced workers, provide new Pell grants for displaced workers who enroll in training and education programs to upgrade skills and support new on-the-job training programs. Her campaign said to expect more language today about John McCain and the economy.
 
Aides see North Carolina as an "uphill battle" but say it's also a place where they see opportunities.
 
"A group of prominent Hillary Clinton donors sent a letter to House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday asking her to retract her comments on superdelegates and stay out of the Democratic fight over their role in the presidential race. The 20 prominent Clinton supporters told Pelosi she should "clarify" recent statements to make it clear superdelegates -- nearly 800 party insiders and elected officials who are free to back any candidate -- could support the candidate they think would be the best nominee."
 
More: "Among the signees of the letter were prominent Democrats and Clinton supporters like Robert Johnson, founder of Black Entertainment Television; Bernard Schwartz, former chairman of Loral Space and Communications; and venture capitalist Steven Rattner. The signees reminded the House leader from California of their support for the party's House campaign committee and said 'therefore' she should 'reflect in your comments a more open view' about superdelegates." 
 
The Washington Post: "Pelosi has not endorsed either candidate. Brendan Daly, her spokesman, said that the speaker recognizes that superdelegates will choose between the candidates but that she 'believes it would do great harm to the Democratic Party if superdelegates are perceived to overturn the will of the voters. This has been her position throughout this primary season, regardless of who was ahead at any particular point in delegates or votes.' Obama spokesman Bill Burton in an e-mail criticized what he saw as an implied threat by the group to withhold funds from Democratic Party campaign committees."
 
The Clinton camp says it raised $500,000 on Wednesday, through three events -- one in New York, two in Washington, NBC/NJ's Athena Jones reports. Spokesman Mo Elleithee said there were some 2,500 people at the evening event at the Daughters of the American Revolution Constitution Hall in Washington. Ticket prices started at $25. The half a million figure does not include online contributions, which aren't counted until the end of the day.
 
NBC/NJ's Mike Memoli reports that hours after Bill Clinton said surrogates should not resign simply for attacking the opposing campaign, a local official who has endorsed Hillary Clinton singled out the Jeremiah Wright controversy during his introduction of the former president.
 
"I am not Jeremiah Wright, but I am an ordained minister and a pastor," said Damron Bradshaw, mayor of the small town of Chesapeake. "What I have to say instead of what he said is God bless America!"
 
After taking the stage moments later, Clinton simply thanked Bradshaw for his introduction without noting the comment. Instead, the former president focused his remarks on issues of particular interest to seniors. "West Virginia has one of the older populations in America, but the fastest growing group of Americans are people over 65," he said at Chesapeake's senior center. "We know that presents a significant challenge for us."
 
HRC did an interview with the Wall Street Journal yesterday. The WSJ lead from that interview: "Hillary Clinton said she fears the U.S. is slipping into a Japanese-style economic malaise that will overwhelm the Federal Reserve's considerable powers. The Democratic presidential candidate said the U.S. government should be ready to buy troubled mortgages from investors and lenders to spur a recovery and avoid a lengthy period of stagnation because of unaddressed weaknesses in the financial sector."

The Washington Post on McCain's major foreign policy speech: "In his first extensive policy speech since securing the delegates needed to win the Republican presidential nomination, McCain delivered an impassioned argument that achieving democracy in Iraq is necessary for a peaceful world. 'Those who argue that our goals in Iraq are unachievable are wrong, just as they were wrong a year ago when they declared the war already lost in Iraq,' he said, without naming Democratic candidates Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama. 'Those who claim we should withdraw from Iraq in order to fight al-Qaeda more effectively elsewhere are making a dangerous mistake.'
 
"But even as McCain offered a defense of President Bush's current war policy, he outlined a sharp critique of the administration's dealings with foreign allies."
 
L.A. Times lead: "McCain, carefully distancing himself from President Bush and seeking to sound a moderate tone, called Wednesday for stronger ties with allies and cautioned that American power "does not mean we can do whatever we want, whenever we want."
 
The upcoming issue of Time has an extensive profile of McCain the reformer and his relationship with lobbyists. From Michael Scherer's piece: "For most other senators, especially those lacking presidential ambitions, such untoward appearances would not raise much of an eyebrow. On any given day, thousands of lobbyists work their connections on Capitol Hill, hoping to obtain letters on their behalf or legislation in their favor. But for McCain, such questions become an issue of integrity. He is the one, after all, who regularly breaks the Senate's code of silence by alleging corruption by his peers. 'Elected officials do act in particular ways in order to assist large soft-money donors,' McCain wrote in a sworn statement from the 2002 Supreme Court case over his campaign-finance bill. 'This skews and shapes the legislative process.'
 
"The McCain campaign answers questions about discrepancies between the candidate's words and actions by asserting that his motivations are different from those of his more crass colleagues. 'John McCain takes positions on legislative and regulatory issues based on his perception of the public good,' writes Brian Rogers, McCain's campaign spokesman, in an e-mail. His position in favor of Ergen, aides say, was nothing other than an effort to bring more competition to cable providers, to lower prices for consumers. Likewise, his opposition to FCC ownership caps for television stations resulted from a long-standing belief that technological changes had made the old laws obsolete." 
 
In a pre-buttal to Obama's economic speech today, the McCain campaign treats Obama as the Dem nominee. From the campaign: " 'This election provides a clear choice. John McCain offers a common sense agenda to cut taxes, eliminate wasteful government spending, and get our economy back on track, while Senator Obama embraces the failed liberal policies of the past that lock down the ingenuity and entrepreneurial spirit that has always grown our economy, created jobs and expanded opportunity for the American people.'"
 
The DNC plans to go after McCain's viability in the West with a conference call with Democratic Party leaders from Colorado, Utah, Arizona and Nevada. It will also release a memo called "McCain: Losing in the West," which will say, in part, "After representing Arizona for more than two decades McCain failed to break 50 percent in his home state's February 5 primary, and turned in big losses in two other potential swing states that surround Arizona. In Nevada McCain lost to Mitt Romney and even to Ron Paul, earning a meager 13% of the vote. In Colorado McCain received only 19 percent of the vote. Going all the way up the Rocky Mountain West, McCain won just one of six states. " More: "Polls show Democrats leading or running even in a generic presidential horse race among independents in Colorado (46-18), Arizona (32-18), Nevada (28-20), and New Mexico (28-24)."

NBC's Andrea Mitchell reported on TODAY, "And now -- even more controversy involving Reverend Wright. An Internet search reveals church bulletins over the past year with controversial 'pastor pages' from Wright. Some reprint anti-Israel writings from a range of people -- from Archbishop Desmond Tutu to an advisor to Elijah Muhammed and Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam to Hamas leader Mousa Abu Marzook.
 
"One of Marzook's columns, reprinted by the church from the Los Angeles Times, says: "Why should any Palestinian recognize the monstrous crimes carried out by Israel's founders and continued by its deformed modern Apartheid state?"
 
"Obama told the Jerusalem Post the church was 'outrageously wrong' to reprint the article, and he denounced Hamas.
 
"And Trumpet, a magazine run by Reverend Wright's daughters, quotes the pastor as saying: 'White supremacy is clearly in charge' in America. And slurring Italians' quote: 'garlic noses.' He also calls Jesus' crucifixion 'a public lynching Italian style.'"
 
"Still, Wright was praised Wednesday by the minister of the church the Clintons attended during their white house years.
 
"Well, I've heard Reverend Wright speak a number of times throughout the years," said the Rev. Dean Snyder, "and have the greatest respect for him as a leader."
 
Is this a Dem ticket preview? NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg is introducing Obama today for his speech on the economy. 
 
After his speech on the economy, Obama holds a fundraiser at Credit Suisse, one of the top subprime lenders, something the Clinton campaign believes is an example of Obama saying one thing but doing another.
 
The candidate gets a nice shout-out from a NYT editorial. "Obama has endorsed the best idea currently on the table to prevent foreclosure: amending the law so that troubled borrowers can have their mortgages modified in bankruptcy court."
 
And Obama's speech, which criticized McCain, got some pickup as well. "Obama mocked John McCain on Wednesday for urging government restraint in responding to the mortgage crisis, saying the Republican would 'just sit back and watch' as millions of Americans lost their homes. The back-and-forth between two of the leading White House contenders underscored the emergence of the nation's home-loan fiasco as a top issue in the presidential race."
 
While in N.C. to deliver his housing speech, Obama also took questions. "At Obama's town hall in North Carolina, which will hold its primary May 6, economic questions dominated -- about the cost of college tuition and the availability of health care coverage. He also fielded a question about what role religion played in his life. In response, the Illinois senator spoke at length about his faith and then raised an issue the questioner hadn't: controversial comments by his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, about racism in America.
 
Wright's comments have been targeted because they "spoke to some of the racial divisions we have in this country," Obama said, saying the furor was a 'distraction' from larger issues on Iraq and the economy." 
 
The Raleigh News & Observer lead on Obama's visit: "Obama said Wednesday that his chief rival, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton was too closely tied to the Washington status quo to bring about change. 'She takes more money from lobbyists and special interests than any candidate, including John McCain,' Obama told about 2,400 people at a town hall meeting in War Memorial Auditorium. 'That shows she doesn't have the sense that things need to change in Washington.'
 
"During a 90-minute speech and question-and-answer session, Obama criticized McCain's stance on the housing crisis, talked about his Christian faith and sought to downplay the provocative comments of his former pastor."

After a week of taking a beating over the fact that a poll showed Clinton out-performing Obama against McCain in Mass., the Obama campaign now has its own blue-state electability argument. In a new Quinnipiac Univ. poll in Conn., Obama has a double-digit lead over McCain while Clinton only leads him by 3 points.

From NBC's Chuck Todd
As expected, one of the two major Democratic candidates saw a downturn in the latest NBC/WSJ poll, but it's not the candidate that you think. Hillary Clinton is sporting the lowest personal ratings of the campaign. Moreover, her 37 percent positive rating is the lowest the NBC/WSJ poll has recorded since March 2001, two months after she was elected to the U.S. Senate from New York.

The poll was conducted Monday and Tuesday this week by Hart-McInturff and surveyed 700 registered voters, which gives the poll a margin of error of +/- 3.7 percent. In addition, we oversampled African-Americans in order to get a more reliable cross-tab on many of the questions we asked in this poll regarding Sen. Barack Obama's speech on race and overall response to last week's Rev. Jeremiah Wright dustup. (Watch Tim Russert's analysis of the poll results.)

On that issue specifically, 32 percent of voters overall said Obama "sufficiently addressed the issue," while 26 percent of folks believe he needs to address the Wright controversy further; 31 percent did not see the speech or had no opinion.

Interestingly, of those voters who said they saw the speech, 47 percent said Obama sufficiently addressed the Wright issue while 37 percent said he needs to address it further. Among whites, 45 percent were satisfied with Obama's explanation, 38 percent were not. Among blacks, 67 percent said the speech was sufficient, while 25 percent want him to address it further.

Overall, 55 percent of voters told us that they were "disturbed" by the videos of Wright that circulated so widely on cable TV and the Internet.

As for the damage this controversy did or didn't do to Obama, it's a mixed bag. Yes, Obama saw some of his numbers go down slightly among certain voting groups, most notably Republicans. But he's still much more competitive with independent voters when matched up against John McCain than Hillary Clinton is. And he still sports a net-positive personal rating of 49-32, which is down only slightly from two weeks ago, when it was 51-28. Again, the biggest shift in those negative numbers were among Republicans.

On one of the most critical questions we've been tracking for a few months, Obama showed resilience. When asked if the three presidential candidates could be successful in uniting the country if they were elected president, 60 percent of all voters believed Obama could be successful at doing this, 58 percent of all voters said McCain could unite the country while only 46 percent of voters said the same about Clinton. All three candidates saw dips on this issue, by the way. In January, 67 percent thought Obama could unite the country; 68 percent thought McCain could do it; and 55 percent said Clinton would be able to pull it off.  

The fact that all three dropped equally in the last three months is a sign that the campaign is becoming more ideological and partisan.

In the head-to-head matchups, there weren't huge shifts in the numbers, with Obama and Clinton dead even at 45 percent in the national Democratic primary matchup (a slight increase for Obama from early March). In the general-election matchups, Obama led McCain by 2 points, and McCain led Clinton by 2 points; all margin of error results and nothing to get too excited over.

One thing about these head-to-head matchups: Our pollsters found that for the second poll in a row, more than 20 percent of Clinton and Obama supporters say they would support McCain when he's matched up against the other Democrat. There is clearly some hardening of feelings among some of the most core supporters of both Democrats, though it may be Obama voters, who are more bitter in the long run.

Why? Because among Obama voters, Clinton has a net-negative personal rating (35-43) while Clinton voters have a net-positive view of Obama (50-29). Taken together, this appears to be evidence that Obama, intially, should have the easier time uniting the party than Clinton.

Considering the doom-and-gloom some predicted for Obama with regard to the Wright controversy, the overall tenor of the electorate appears to still be favorable for him. He's mortal, but he's survived ... for now. It's not clear whether he'd be this resilient if another controversy exploded as big as Wright, but it appears that voters are giving him the benefit of doubt. There's lots of evidence inside these numbers that voters still would like to know more about Obama, and that is both an opportunity and a potential obstacle.

From NBC/NJ's Matthew E. Berger
At a time when Sen. Hillary Clinton is increasingly relying on superdelegates to vault her to the Democratic Party's nomination, a handful of undecided and pledged superdelegates are coming forward to say her campaign's tactics in recent weeks are doing more harm than good.
 
The Democratic Party insiders say they believe Clinton's direct attacks against Sen. Barack Obama in recent days are hurting the party and its chances in November, and also say it is showing a calculated, desperate-to-win side of Clinton that they dislike.
 
"In looking at the manner in which the candidates are campaigning, I think it would be best they focused their attention on the presumptive nominee and showed our party which one is better in campaigning against McCain," said Garry Shay, a California superdelegate, who announced his support for Clinton.
 
Unlike some in the party, these superdelegates said they do not believe Clinton should drop out of the race. They said they are committed to the democratic process, and want to allow the states still remaining to cast their ballots. But they acknowledged Obama is the likely nominee and suggested the personal attacks were only hurting the party and its viability.
 
The Clinton campaign has been actively wooing these delegates, believing a plurality represents the strongest, and increasingly the only, way for her to win the nomination. But one undeclared delegate, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the recent tactics are turning her and other superdelegates off.
 
"I don't think anybody's saying 'step aside,' but 'stop with the garbage' is what people want to say," the delegate said. "Just chill a little bit."
 
As activists committed to the party, they said, they have been impressed by Obama's ability to bring new Democrats into the fold, and they worry that Clinton is threatening that.
 
"We like the fact that there is a candidate that has won so many states overwhelmingly," the delegate said. "We're feeling her advisors are leading her in a path that diminishes her as well as him."
 
Several said they were angered by comments from James Carville, who called Bill Richardson "Judas" for backing Obama after serving in the Clinton White House. One delegate said Richardson's rationale for supporting Obama, and his implicit frustration at the Clintons' heavy-handed approach to garnering his support, was echoed among superdelegates.
 
Others said they were frustrated by recent reports that Clinton embellished her description of landing in Bosnia as First Lady, and said it suggested she would do anything to win. "I don't remember what movie I saw two weeks ago; I don't necessarily remember what I had for dinner last night," one superdelegate said. "But I would remember having to duck and run from sniper fire."
 
The final straw, though, were Clinton's comments Tuesday, when she said the Rev. Jeremiah Wright "would not have been my pastor." Several superdelegates saw it as a direct, personal attack on Obama.
 
"I think it's very dangerous for any candidate to constantly thrum on what they perceive as sensational criticisms of their opponent," said Debra Kozikowski, an uncommitted superdelegate from Massachusetts. "I would be more likely to respond positively to discussions of issues that effect Americans versus what might be perceived as character flaws."
 
Clinton campaign officials said Clinton's comments were a direct response to a question she received at an editorial board meeting and suggested personal attacks have gone in both directions in the primary race.
 
The party activists said they have been receiving calls from members, a majority of whom want them to support whoever has won the popular vote. Many superdelegates are themselves elected by the Democratic Party and believe most will follow the will of party members for the party's future, and their own viability.
 
And they say they are not buying some of the Clinton campaign's explanations as to why they should support her, whether it is her victories in large states, primary states or those likely to go Democratic in the November election.
 
"Periodically, over the last couple of weeks, you will see a news story or get something from the campaign, and you'll go, 'How stupid do you think I am?" one uncommitted superdelegate said. "All of us watch television all the time, read the newspapers. We all play with the little charts online too. We know it is virtually impossible."
 
One delegate said the Clinton campaign is "using Jeremiah Wright to scare white people."
 
"A full and fair debate about issues and differences and even fights is good," the delegate said. "Mud slinging, personal attacks and lying is never good for any political fight or party. And I see a lot of that coming from one side more than the other."
 
The delegates said there is little the party or its leaders can do to prevent the current back and forth. But some said they were increasingly in touch with Clinton campaign officials to say their support is in jeopardy.
 
"Uncommitted delegates can come out and say, 'If you don't stop this now, we won't vote for you,'" one uncommitted superdelegate said.

From NBC/NJ's Adam Aigner-Treworgy
MONTEREY, Calif. -- In McCain's first major policy address since locking up the GOP nomination this morning, his campaign did its best to make its candidate look presidential. Using two teleprompters on the wings of the podium, McCain delivered a 30-minute speech that showed how a potential McCain presidency would try to change the shape of U.S. foreign policy.
 
Two new ideas came out of McCain's speech, both focusing on shoring up relations with the country's democratic allies.
 
"We have to strengthen our global alliances as the core of a new global compact -- a League of Democracies -- that can harness the vast influence of the more than one hundred democratic nations around the world to advance our values and defend our shared interests," McCain said, reading from prepared texts.

But during the question-and-answer portion of the event following his speech, McCain expanded on his "League of Democracies" proposal.

VIDEO: John McCain calls for the United States to work more respectfully with democratic allies and live up to its duties as a world leader.
 
"It's not just [a commitment of] mine. President Sarkozy of France is talking about the same thing; Prime Minister Brown of England, Chancellor Merkel is another talking about the same thing," McCain said in response to a question about containing an Iranian nuclear program, arguing that a coalition of democratic countries could be more effective in pressuring the Iranians to abandon their nuclear ambitions.  
 
McCain also floated the idea of a free trade agreement with the European Union, saying in response to an audience member's question that such a proposal would be "very interesting."
 
Speaking to reporters on his campaign plane following the event, McCain admitted that negotiations for such a proposal might be difficult.
 
"You notice that some of their environmental standards and labor standards are higher than ours, not lower," McCain said. "So it would be very interesting to see how those negotiations went and how the opponents of free trade agreements in general react to that."

From NBC/NJ's Aswini Anburajan
GREENSBORO, N.C. -- Obama defended his controversial former pastor the Rev. Jeremiah Wright today, on the heels of statements by Hillary Clinton that she would have left Wright's church had she been in Obama's place.
 
Obama invited the audience in Greensboro to come to Trinity United Church, the church Wright founded and where he preached for 30 years. Obama called it a "wonderful, welcoming church" that had a pastor who was "trying to teach a lesson connecting scripture to our daily lives and people struggle with illness and family and finances and all the things that people normally talk about."
 
Turning to Wright, Obama said his "former pastor said some objectionable things when I wasn't in church on those particular days, and I have condemned them out right."
 
But trying to contextualize Wright's comments, Obama added, "I do have to remind people though this is somebody who was preaching at least three sermons at least a week for 30 years. And so,  [sic] got boiled down; They found five or six of his most offensive statements, boiled that down to a … half-minute sound clip and just played it over and over again."
 
He said the clips spoke "to some of the racial divisions that we have in this country and tapped into those divisions. I hope people don't get distracted by this because as I said in my speech last week on Tuesday; we can't afford to be distracted."
 
Yesterday, Clinton had said in an interview that individuals can't choose their relatives, but they can choose their churches. Her comments followed a week of silence on the issue and statements praising Obama's speech.
 
Asked about religion on the stump, Obama started to raise the issue of Wright's comments on his own last week and appeared critical of the media for replaying them on an "endless loop you YouTube and cable news," he has said, repeating a line from the Philadelphia speech.
 
Today, he told the majority African-American crowd that Trinity belonged to a majority white denomination, an unusual statement that the senator has never made before.
 
"United Church of Christ is, by the way, a 99 percent white denomination," Obama said.
 
Today, speaking to the young, white man who had asked Obama about his faith, he said that focusing on Wright was a distraction.
 
"You and I, we are both Christians," Obama said to the young man. "And even if you're not a Christian, we are both Americans. And we cannot solve the problems of America, if every time somebody somewhere says something stupid that everybody gets up in arms."

From NBC's Domenico Montanaro
A couple of other items from today...

Bill Clinton's comments that Democrats "let New Hampshire go out of turn," and that they have a Democratic Secretary of State, is causing a mini stir in the Granite State.

The New Hampshire Union Leader: "Former New Hampshire Democratic Chairman Kathy Sullivan, a state Clinton campaign co-chair, said she believed that Bill Clinton was criticizing the DNC in his remarks, not New Hampshire.

"But the former president also appeared to imply in his statement that the DNC allowed the New Hampshire primary to be held earlier than scheduled in the DNC rules because Secretary of State Bill Gardner, who set the date of the New Hampshire primary as set out by state law, is a Democrat.

"Sullivan said Bill Clinton was mistaken to suggest that Gardner's party affiliation was in any way related to New Hampshire receiving a waiver from the DNC.

"Clinton campaign spokesman Kathleen Strand said, 'Hillary and Bill Clinton have been staunch and ardent supporters' of the first-in-the-nation primary in New Hampshire. 'That's indisputable.'

"She said the former president was not criticizing New Hampshire, but instead saying that 'just as New Hampshire voters had a voice, Michigan and Florida votes should have a voice' and that 'Obama should know better than anyone in this campaign that the campaign is not over until the last vote is counted. New Hampshire made that point to him pretty clearly.'"

This article from Salon is an interesting read. It lays out what the Republican strategy would be for a Nominee Clinton:

"Though many Democrats like and respect Clinton as a role model, an effective legislator and a fighter against a relentless GOP onslaught, the image Republicans would want in voters' minds this fall if she wins the nomination is far more sinister. They'll say Clinton will do or say anything to win, and that she can't be trusted (also, she'll raise your taxes). McCain's campaign will call her a liberal and paint her support for ending the war in Iraq as a surrender to terrorists (the same strategy they'd use against Obama). Clinton's problem is that many voters already see her in a negative light; there isn't much work Republicans would have to do to put her there.

"Ironically, that might make Clinton immune to dirty tricks like the ones the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth pulled on John Kerry (or like the mud the GOP is already planning to throw about Obama's minister, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright). This is, after all, a candidate whose billing records as a private lawyer in Arkansas in the 1980s, the infamous lost-and-then-found Rose records, were subpoenaed, examined and even dusted for fingerprints by Republican investigators in Congress over a decade ago. When Clinton ran for reelection to her Senate seat two years ago, even the sleaziest GOP operatives basically left her alone, allowing her to cruise to victory without coming under heavy fire. But there isn't much out there voters haven't already heard about Clinton, or her husband; why bother trying to fight the battles over the White House travel office again?

More: "The other line of attack Clinton faces if she does wrest the nomination from Obama is over how she does it. Colorado GOP chairman Dick Wadhams called it "stealing" the nomination, and he'd be happy to tell voters all about the process that put Clinton over the top. "If she wins, it's because these non-elected delegates are going to be countering what happened in primaries and caucuses around the nation," he said. "I think that would be very divisive for them." Other Republicans say polls show independents don't like the thought of superdelegates picking a nominee who trailed in the elected delegate count. "The party that created the whole open primary system and ended the deals behind closed doors and smoke-filled rooms is the one that's kind of relying on that after all," Bolger said.

But the piece ends this way: "If Clinton does pull off yet another family comeback, in a political career already dotted with them, her message to Republicans may well be (to quote a figure from a different political dynasty), 'Bring it on.'"

From NBC/NJ's Aswini Anburajan
GREENSBORO, NC -- Playing off Bush's ownership society theme from 2004, Obama said McCain, like Bush, was offering an "on your own" prescription for dealing with a rapidly sinking economy.

"According to John McCain, he said the best for us to address the fact that millions of Americans are losing their homes is to just sit back and watch it happen," Obama said. "In his entire speech yesterday, he offered not one policy, not one idea, not one bit of relief for the nearly 35,000 North Carolinians who were forced to foreclose on their dream in the last few months. Not one, not one single idea or a single policy prescription."

VIDEO: Barack Obama criticizes John McCain's speech on the economy, likening his policy to that of President Bush.

Pointing a finger at the president, Obama said that Bush had led the country down this road in a similar manner for the past eight years.

"It's the idea that the government has no rule at all in solving the challenges facing working families," Obama said. "That all we can do is hand out tax breaks to the wealthiest people and let the chips fall where they may. George Bush called this the ownership society, but he really meant is, 'You're On Your Own Society.'"

"If you lose your job, you're on your own," Obama chanted. "If you're a child in poverty, pull yourself up by your bootstraps; you're on your own. If you were lured in by deceptive mortgage practices you're on your own."

And hitting McCain again, "John McCain apparently wants to continue this, while the rest of America is struggling with rising tuition, skyrocketing healthcare costs, plant closings, failing schools you're on your own."

The attacks on McCain and Bush were part of an economically themed message at a town hall of about 1,000 at the War Memorial Auditorium in Greensboro.

"The economy is grinding to a halt," Obama said. Earlier he told the crowd that the country was heading towards a recession but ordinary Americans were struggling with the effects of the recession for the past several years.

Obama ticked off the elements of his policy for subprime mortgages and told the crowd that he didnt' believe like John McCain did that "helping struggling homeowners was pandering."

With a nod to the increasingly bitter back and forth between the Obama and Clinton campaigns, Obama said that he wanted to keep the tone of the campaign "respectful" before he reiterated to an old attack on Clinton believing that lobbyists were people too.

This is Obama's first campaign visit after a trip to St. Thomas with his family. When an audience member told Obama that she hoped he enjoyed his vacation, he quickly retorted, "Let me tell you, two and a half days is not a vacation. It's a long weekend, but it's not a vacation."

*** UPDATE *** McCain camp responds:
"Senator Obama's blatant mischaracterizations aren't the new politics he's promised America, they're the old attack and smear tactics that Americans are tired of. Barack Obama's diagnosis for our housing market is clearly that Barack Obama knows best -- raise taxes on hardworking Americans and give government a prescription to spend.

"John McCain has called for an immediate and balanced approach to provide transparency and accountability in an effort to help homeowners who are hurting, while Barack Obama has made a $10 billion election-year promise that is sure to raise taxes and handcuff an already struggling economy."