From NBC/NJ's Adam Aigner-Treworgy
ANNAPOLIS, MD -- With 35,000 empty seats behind him, McCain fought strong winds and unseasonably cold temperatures to address a small crowd on the concourse of the Navy football stadium this morning, emphasizing the importance of service and acknowledging that his decades of service could be used against him.

"As one of my potential opponents often observes, I've spent 50 years in the service of this country and its ideals," McCain said, referencing a line Barack Obama has used to subtly emphasize McCain's advanced age.

And then -- reprising a line he used in his victory speech after the Potomac Primaries to show the dangers of Obama's youth -- McCain said, "When I was a young man, I thought glory was the highest attainment, and all glory was self-glory. My parents had tried to teach me otherwise, as did the Naval Academy. But I didn't understand the lesson until later in life, when I confronted challenges I never expected to face."

McCain's speech here was the third leg of his "Service to America" tour, highlighting his biography, like at the US Naval Academy, his alma mater.

McCain seemed to have a hard time reading the speech off of the large flat-screen monitor that stood directly opposite him, whether because of technical problems or the bright sun. But the wind made it difficult to turn the pages of his prepared text on the podium, and at one point he skipped a large chuck of his address, according to prepared remarks distributed to reporters beforehand.

The omitted section pertained to the cynicism of many Americans who have, "through no fault of their own, been left behind as others profit as they never have before."

"I'm a conservative, and I believe it is a very healthy thing for Americans to be skeptical about the purposes and practices of public officials," McCain was to say, per his prepared remarks. "But when healthy skepticism sours into corrosive cynicism our expectations of our government become reduced to the delivery of services."

McCain went on to say that what is lost in such cases is the definition of citizenship -- which for McCain means service to America. 

The audience at this morning's speech also included McCain's sister Sandy Morgan, fellow POW Bud Day, Sen. John Warner, former Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele, former Secretaries of the Navy John Lehman and Bill Ball, and former National Security Advisor Bud McFarlane.

From NBC's Mark Murray
Time: "Barack Obama raised more than $30 million in the month of March, a campaign official told TIME on Tuesday. Though the official would not provide an exact number, he did say, 'The number starts with a three and we are still counting. It's in the 30s.'" More:  "[O]ne Clinton campaign adviser hinted that the New York senator's total for the month will come close to $20 million. That estimate could not be independently confirmed."

(If those numbers are true, they are significant dips from February, when Obama raised $55 million and Clinton raised about $35 million. However, they signal that Obama is raising about a million a day, while Hillary isn't.)

The AP: "Sen. John McCain said Wednesday he has begun 'getting together a list of names' to choose a vice presidential running mate, and hopes to make an announcement before the Republican convention in early September." 

From NBC's Domenico Montanaro
With McCain returning to Annapolis as part of his biographical "Service to America Tour," it seems appropriate to resurrect this vignette from a 2002 Washington Post article, entitled, "The Few, the Proud, the Rule-Breakers." (A Google search turned up just this site with the full article.)

"In 1958, you could get a Black N for keeping a television set in your room. That's how Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a graduate of the academy who endured years of captivity in the Vietnam War, came within a hairsbreadth of joining the Black N society.

"McCain and his friends hid their TV inside a pipe locker on their fourth-floor dorm hallway, bringing it out on weekends to watch boxing matches and episodes of "Maverick." All was well until their company officer got wind of the TV and demanded that someone be held accountable. McCain's friends played paper-rock-scissors to decide who would take the punishment, but excluded McCain, whose high jinks were already legendary.

"If McCain had been fingered, he could have faced expulsion, his friends from that era said."

For some context to what the Black N is, here's this nut graph and quote from a member from the story:

"Viewed with a mix of caution, odd envy and some disdain by their rule-abiding classmates, Black N's represent something of a secret society among the 4,000 midshipmen. And it's been that way since 1912.

"The members, typically numbering about two dozen a year, keep their sweaters under wraps until the annual Halloween dinner, for which the academy relaxes its uniform rules. Only then do they parade into the dining hall showing their true colors.

"Academy officials react with grim-faced silence. The Black N is not part of any regulation uniform, of course, and the behavior necessary to earn one is anything but by the book.

" 'I guess you'd call us not mainstream midshipmen," said Peter Golwas, a 1962 academy graduate who got his Black N after he was caught returning from a boozy evening in Annapolis. "We kind of thought it was our mission to challenge those rules and regulations, to be on the edge, if you will, and see how far we could go with all this stuff."

From Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, and Domenico Montanaro
*** All the Wright moves? Yesterday, Clinton delegate hunter Harold Ickes admitted to Talking Points Memo that he was bringing up the Rev. Wright story in his conversations with Democratic superdelegates. While that news is certain to displease Obama supporters, it would be naïve for anyone to think the Clinton camp WASN'T going to push this story to influence undecided superdelegates -- just like it would be naïve to think the Obama camp isn't whispering to them about the possible baggage Bill Clinton would bring to a general election. The risk for Ickes and the Clinton campaign is that Dem superdelegates aren't your typical swing voters -- they're more liberal and progressive than your average Democrat -- and playing the Wright card with them could backfire. Then again, with Clinton trailing Obama and with superdelegates incrementally moving in Obama's direction, the Clinton camp has to play this card, right? And let's not be naïve ourselves: It's possible the superdelegates themselves are bringing this up. They are junkies and they are probably curious about the polling.

VIDEO: NBC Deputy Political Director Mark Murray offers his first read on the tightening race in the Keystone State as the April 22nd Pennsylvania primary nears and Ronald Reagan's sudden participation.

*** The narrowing Keystone race: Are expectations slowly starting to shift in Pennsylvania now that Obama has spent significant time in the state? A new Quinnipiac poll today has Clinton leading Obama in Pennsylvania by nine points, 50%-41%. That's down from her 12-point lead (53%-41%) a couple of weeks ago. The poll also shows both Clinton and Obama leading McCain in possible general election match-ups in the Keystone State (Clinton is ahead of him, 48%-40%, while Obama leads him, 43%-39%). The survey also has Clinton leading McCain by two points in Florida and nine points in Ohio, while Obama leads McCain by one point in Ohio and trails him by nine in Florida. The Sunshine State is starting to look less and less like an Obama target state. Of course, while Clinton may be stronger in Florida, she's consistently weaker than him in the Midwest and West, signaling that the two will have two different paths to 270.  

*** Some guys have all the luck: On Monday, Mississippi certified the results from its March 11 primary, and it turned out that Obama picked up an additional delegate from the contest, which gives him a 1,416-1,252 pledged lead over Clinton per NBC's count. Indeed, it seems that every time there is some sort of recalculation, Obama picks up delegates -- whether it's by luck (in Mississippi) or by simply outworking the Clinton campaign (Iowa's county conventions). And then Clinton has lost superdelegates when Eliot Spitzer resigned or when Rep. Tom Lantos passed away. Delegate by delegate, the gravity of the race appears to be pulling in Obama's direction. Of course, there are exceptions, the most recent being the announcement by Obama superdelegate Al Wynn that he'll retire from Congress in June. That brings our superdelegate total to Clinton 255, Obama 221. So the overall count is Obama 1,637, Clinton 1,507. On the delegate front, this weekend there are conventions in North Dakota and Washington, where more delegates could switch. Also watch Ohio's certification, which could move another delegate in the 1st Congressional District.

*** Dean's legacy: The New York Times is the latest news organization to examine why DNC chairman Howard Dean isn't taking a more active role to resolve his party's nomination fight. The stories haven't been that flattering, and taken together, they seem to be writing what COULD be a disastrous legacy for the former governor and onetime presidential candidate, if the Democrats end up losing in November. The Times piece, in fact, left out the most embarrassing part of Dean's stint as DNC chair: his paltry fundraising. But the criticism that the outsider Dean has received has always tended to come from Democratic insiders in Washington. Also, ask yourself this: If Dean aggressively intervenes in the nomination fight, wouldn't that undermine his neutrality, possibly angering either the Clinton or Obama camps? And if he went out of his way to lend a helping hand to Florida and Michigan -- which broke the rules and resisted earlier DNC compromises -- wouldn't it make it impossible for the Democrats to have control over the nominating calendar in future contests? One other thing about Dean's legacy: He has skins on the wall (the 2006 midterms) that some of his predecessors can't point to.

*** Anger from the Right: McCain is leading both Clinton and Obama in general election match-ups, according to some recent national polls. His appeal with independents gives his party a chance to expand its base. And his military background and longtime service in the Senate gives him a clear contrast against both Clinton and Obama. But that still doesn't satisfy some establishment conservative leaders. Here's what James Dobson tells the Wall Street Journal: "I have seen no evidence that Sen. McCain is successfully unifying the Republican Party or drawing conservatives into his fold. To the contrary, he seems intent on driving them away. To my knowledge, he has not reached out to pro-family leaders or changed any of the positions that have troubled them." In fact, it seems the Wall Street Journal opens up every wound in the McCain-GOP world -- with another piece on McCain's fundraising woes.

*** McCain's tour, Day 3: Speaking of McCain, he gives a speech this morning at another alma mater of his, the Naval Academy in Annapolis. His campaign says that the candidate "will talk about his journey from a young man who arrived at the Naval Academy more focused on breaking rank than rising through the ranks, to a man who had in him … a love of country and a commitment to serving her ingrained in his heart for life."

*** On the trail: Clinton campaigns in Pittsburgh and then flies to San Francisco to raise money; Obama, also in Pennsylvania, addresses the state AFL-CIO convention in Philadelphia; Bill Clinton stumps in Indiana; and Michelle Obama speaks at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

*** Let's play some Hardball: And don't miss Obama on the Hardball College Tour with Chris Matthews on MSNBC at 5:00 pm ET and 7:00 pm ET.

Countdown to Pennsylvania: 20 days
Countdown to North Carolina, Indiana: 34 days
Countdown to Election Day 2008: 216 days
Countdown to Inauguration Day 2009: 293 days
 
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The New York Times looks at what some see as the weakness of Howard Dean in resolving his party's nomination fight. "[T]hree years after he won election as the party chairman by running largely as an outsider, it is not clear that Mr. Dean has the political skills or the stature with the two campaigns to bring the nomination battle to a relatively quick and unifying conclusion. Indeed, 24 hours after he made his remarks, Mrs. Clinton said she intended to keep fighting for the nomination through the summer, if necessary. It was an unmistakable rebuke to Mr. Dean, who has never had good relations with the Clintons."

"In an interview, Mr. Dean said he was taking steps to pave the way to a smooth convention in Denver this summer, suggesting that he had had private conversations with both campaigns." More: "senior officials in both campaigns said they had heard rarely from Mr. Dean on matters like the tone of the contest and how it might be concluded and what to do about the Michigan and Florida delegates, the subject of a bitter and potentially debilitating debate between the Clinton and Obama campaigns."

More: "Some Democratic Party leaders, while offering sympathy for Mr. Dean's plight, said it was urgent that he take a more assertive role to restore peace. Several suggested that Mr. Dean -- who has sought to build a legacy by expanding party operations to all 50 states -- risked having his tenure as party leader remembered for a traumatizing loss in a year where most Democrats think victory should be easy."

PENNSYLVANIA: The Washington Post covers the Obama Pennsylvania bus tour and finds that he's making some progress with blue-collar voters. "Despite a few stumbles -- at an Altoona bowling alley, Obama rolled a ball into a gutter on his first try -- political observers say he has started to make the inroads with voters he will need to cut into Clinton's lead." More: "Mark Nevins, Clinton's Pennsylvania spokesman, conceded to reporters on the candidate's campaign bus that Obama's aggressive efforts are making a difference."

"Clinton is running a state campaign similar to Obama's, mixing small-scale and larger events that focus on pocketbook issues such as middle-class tax cuts and the creation of new manufacturing jobs. Her crowds are also boisterous, filled with shout-outs and standing ovations, along with signs that say 'Don't quit.'"

Additionally: "To win in the state, Obama will probably need to run up big totals in and around Philadelphia, in the Lehigh Valley and in south-central Pennsylvania. Casey's support could help among more conservative Democrats, particularly in the Scranton and Wilkes-Barre region, where his family is a fabled political brand."

It's still amazing that this Dem primary's swing voter is a white male. Apparently, that's the case in Pennsylvania, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "Clinton went after a treasure trove of white male workers yesterday in a speech to the Pennsylvania convention of the AFL-CIO. Mr. Obama speaks to the same group today, while Mrs. Clinton travels to Pittsburgh for a closed-door economic summit at a union hall on the South Side."

"Mr. Obama beat Mrs. Clinton among white men, often among huge margins, in the primaries in Wisconsin, Virginia, California and Maryland, but next-door in Ohio, whose demographics are often seen as similar to Pennsylvania's, Mrs. Clinton turned the tables, taking 58 percent of the white males to Mr. Obama's 37 percent, according to MSNBC exit polls. Pre-primary polling in Pennsylvania has shown she has similar leads among white males here."

The New York Post has a little fun with the Rocky vs. Clinton Tale of the Tape.

Bill Clinton thought his wife's April Fool's gag yesterday was a hoot, NBC/NJ's Mike Memoli reports. Speaking to a modest crowd in Great Falls, MT yesterday, the former president said it has been an "amusing couple of days," referring also to his daughter's comment that she thought her mom would be a better president than her dad. He then -- with an exaggerated laugh -- clued in the crowd on Hillary's announcement about a bowling match with her chief rival.

"We read he bowled there yesterday and bowled 37; she said, 'Finally I found an athletic event that even the middle-aged lady can beat him at, I wanna play that game,'" he said. "I think we oughta have a little fun, you know sometimes we take all this too seriously."

But the election is serious, he added, launching into a 50-minute discussion on health care, education, the economy, and energy policy. On the latter issue, he talked about the need to invest in clean coal technology, and noted how the high cost of fuel was impacting Big Sky country in particular.

Per excerpts of his remarks today, McCain will say: "Annapolis holds a special place in my life… But witnesses to my behavior here, a few of whom are present today, as well as a nagging conscience, have a tendency to interrupt my reverie for a misspent youth, and urge a more honest appraisal of my record and character here. In truth, my four years at the Naval Academy were not notable for exemplary virtue or academic achievement but, rather, for the impressive catalogue of demerits I managed to accumulate. By my reckoning, at the end of my second class year, I had marched enough extra duty to take me to Baltimore and back seventeen times -- which, if not a record, certainly ranks somewhere very near the top."

More: "If I had ignored some of the less important conventions of the Academy, I was careful not to defame its more compelling traditions: the veneration of courage and resilience; the honor code that simply assumed your fidelity to its principles; the homage paid to Americans who had sacrificed greatly for our country; the expectation that you, too, would prove worthy of your country's trust… The most important lesson I learned here was that to sustain my self-respect for a lifetime it would be necessary for me to have the honor of serving something greater than my self-interest. When I left the Academy, I was not even aware I had learned that lesson.  In a later crisis, I would suffer a genuine attack on my dignity, an attack, unlike the affronts I had exaggerated as a boy, that left me desperate and uncertain. It was then I would recall, awakened by the example of men who shared my circumstances, the lesson that the Academy in its venerable and enduring way had labored to impress upon me. It changed my life forever. I had found my cause: citizenship in the greatest nation on earth."

The Wall Street Journal finds more conservatives who are still grumpy over the McCain as the GOP's presumptive nominee. "Polls suggest the conservative leaders are dragging their feet more than most of the public. A survey of registered Republican voters taken in late March by the Pew Research Center said 64% of respondents thought the party would 'unite solidly behind McCain,' up from 58% a month earlier. The percentage of respondents who said the party will be divided fell to 22% from 32%."

James Dobson, in particular, is sounding downright anti-McCain; here's a statement he released to the WSJ on McCain: "I have seen no evidence that Sen. McCain is successfully unifying the Republican Party or drawing conservatives into his fold. To the contrary, he seems intent on driving them away. To my knowledge, he has not reached out to pro-family leaders or changed any of the positions that have troubled them. He still believes, for example, that federal money should be allocated for laboratory experiments with tiny human embryos, after which they would be killed when they are no longer useful. He continues to favor allowing each state to create its own definition of marriage, potentially giving the nation 50 different legal interpretations. It would create chaos within families."

The Wall Street Journal, in fact, is just full of bad news for McCain today. This piece focuses on the fact that he's trailing Clinton and/or Obama in fundraising with some key GOP groups. "Of seven major industries that have been the most reliable Republican resources, Sen. McCain has beaten Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama in only one, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan organization. Even that one, transportation, is a close call."

More: "Employees of financial-services, insurance and real-estate companies so far have donated to Sen. Obama over Sen. McCain by almost two-to-one -- and favored Sen. Clinton by even more. Health-care and pharmaceutical firms have given three times as much to each of the two Democrats as to Sen. McCain. Defense firms put Sen. McCain ahead of Sen. Obama, but behind Sen. Clinton. Energy, construction and agribusiness firms have given more to both Democrats."

The Washington Post looks at how the economic downturn could hinder McCain, particularly with a few of the people he's surrounded himself with. "Former senator Phil Gramm, with his aw-shucks Texas drawl, may at first blush have little in common with Carly Fiorina, the telegenic former chief executive of Hewlett-Packard. But they share a bond: Both are leading economic advisers of Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), the presumptive Republican nominee for president, and both have reputations as the kind of aggressive capitalists that may be sliding from favor as the nation's economy edges toward recession."

"Democratic opponents are already plotting attacks on two advocates of what Robert Reich, a former Clinton labor secretary, described as 'dog eat dog capitalism,' an economic philosophy that works well when the economy is on the upswing but may not play so well in a trough. 'McCain is counting on people having very short memories and not connecting some pretty obvious dots here,' said Jared Bernstein, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute, summing up a growing liberal critique of McCain's economic team."

"To economists across the political spectrum, much of the criticism is unfair oversimplification. But even some advisers close to McCain said they wonder if such lightning-rod public figures should be so closely identified with his candidacy. 'I, for one, have thought about it a lot,' said one McCain adviser, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. 'And that's all I will say.'"

The Boston Globe delves into the 100 Years controversy: "The presumptive Republican nominee says that his Democratic rivals are distorting his views. He explains that he never favored such a long war, but rather envisioned an open-ended military presence of peacekeepers, similar to US military commitments in Korea and Bosnia and even Japan and Germany. But some academic and political analysts say McCain's argument fails to distinguish between other US occupations and an extended presence in a disputed, volatile flashpoint. One historian who opposes the war said yesterday that the Arizona senator's analogy has no true precedent in those earlier conflicts."

There might not be a better foreign policy get for Obama inside the Democratic Party than Lee Hamilton, who was the top Dem on both the 9/11 commission and the Iraq Study Group. He's not a superdelegate, but he is fairly well known in Indiana, particularly in the area of the state where Obama is not expected to do well. "Hamilton, once mentioned as a possible running mate for Bill Clinton, told the AP he believed Obama was the candidate most likely to unite the country."

"'I begin by asking myself what kind of leadership the country needs at this juncture and I think, for me at least, the answer is that you want a candidate that will try to bring together a country that is very evenly divided, a country in which partisanship has been very sharp and to try to get a candidate who will create a new sense of national unity and will try to transcend the divisions within the country,' he said."

Maureen Dowd thinks the long Clinton-Obama battle has been good for Obama. "[T]he ultimate favor Hillary can do for the Illinois freshman is to fight him full-out until the finale and then gracefully release him so he can find happiness with another. Hillary's work is done only when she is done, because the best way for Obama to prove he's ready to stare down Ahmadinejad is by putting away someone even tougher."

Clinton backer Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO) took a couple of swipes at Obama's speaking ability, but conceded that he'll likely be the nominee. "In the black tradition, he would probably be mediocre," Cleaver, who is black, told a Canadian radio program. "For White Americans, it's like, this guy can speak," Cleaver said in the radio interview. "If you put him on a level with a lot of other African-American public speakers, he may not even measure up."
 
But then he said, "If I had to make a prediction right now, I'd say Barack Obama is going to be the next president. I will be stunned if he's not the next president of the United States."

Mississippi held congressional run-offs: "A Republican mayor and Democratic chancery clerk won their parties' primary runoffs Tuesday and will compete to fill one of Mississippi's two rare open congressional seats in November. A former Republican county chairman also won his party's primary runoff in a central Mississippi congressional district, beating a one-time state senator."
 
"Southaven Mayor Greg Davis and Travis Childers, the Prentiss County chancery clerk, will get little reprieve from campaigning in the northern 1st Congressional District because they'll compete April 22 in a special election. The winner will serve the rest of this year to finish the two-year House term that Republican Roger Wicker started in January 2007. Gov. Haley Barbour appointed Wicker to the U.S. Senate in December after Trent Lott resigned. Childers defeated state Rep. Steve Holland in the Democratic contest."
 
More: "For the Republicans, Davis defeated former Tupelo Mayor Glenn McCullough Jr."

From NBC/NJ's Carrie Dann
Hot off the presses: New numbers from the North Carolina Board of Elections show that, since the first of the year, more than 165,000 new voters have registered to participate in advance of the state's May 6 primary.

That puts the total of new registered voters in the state since January 2007 at almost 522,000. For comparison's sake, that's more than TWICE the amount of new voters registered during the same time period before the 2004 election.

Forty-five percent of the new voters since January are registered as Democrats, with about 30% unaffiliated and 25% Republican. About a third are under 24 years old.

Gary Bartlett, the director of the Board of Elections, says that the number of new registrants is "through the roof" and "absolutely, totally unprecedented."

"2004 was our bellwether year," he said, when previous records were broken by spikes in registration over the summer before the November election.

This cycle's numbers, he projects, will be three to four times higher.

Bartlett has already started instructing county election officials to start reconsidering the number of ballots, volunteers, and voting machines they will need on primary day.

From NBC's Domenico Montanaro
Talking Points Memo reports top Clinton aide Harold Ickes admitted pushing the Rev. Jeremiah Wright issue with superdelegates:

"Look what the Republicans did to a genuine war hero," Ickes said, in a reference to John Kerry.

"Super delegates have to take into account the strengths and weakness of both candidates and decide who would make the strongest candidate against what will undoubtedly be ferocious Republican attacks," Ickes continued. "I've had super delegates tell me that the Wright issue is a real issue for them."

In a reference to Wright's controversial views, Ickes continued: "Nobody thinks that Barack Obama harbors those thoughts. But that's not the issue. The issue is what Republicans [will do with them]...I think they're going to give him a very tough time."

Asked whether he was specifically bringing up Wright to super-delegates, Ickes said: "I've said what I've said...I tell people that they need to look at what they think Republicans may use against him. Wright comes up in the conversations."

From NBC's Ken Strickland
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says he supports DNC Chairman Howard Dean's plan to have super delegates resolve the Democratic nomination battle by July 1, 2008.

In the usual off-camera scrum with reporters that follows his Tuesday news conference, he was asked...

"Do you support [Howard Dean's] proposal to have superdelegates vote by July first or express their preference by July first," the reporter asked. 

Reid said, "Either that or before."

From NBC's Domenico Montanaro
NBC News has adjusted the delegate count in Mississippi, giving one more to Obama and one less to Clinton. The count was 19-14 and now stands at 20-13. The official results were certified in Mississippi and Obama finished with a slightly higher statewide vote result than originally indicated, 62.5% to 37.5%. That result broke a threshold and triggered the extra delegate.

We are also, however, reducing Obama's superdelegate count by one, since Rep. Al Wynn (D-MD), who lost his primary fight, said he will leave his office in June, two months before the Democratic convention. No word yet if Wynn's exit will reduce the total number of superdelegates from 794 to 793.

Earlier today, we noted that Obama won the total delegates in Texas, 99-94, after the remaining nine caucus delegates were allocated 7-2 for Obama.

Obama now leads by 130 in the overall delegate count, 1637-1507. Obama leads by 164 pledged delegates, 1416-1252. (There remains just one delegate unallocated by NBC News from Democrats Abroad.) Clinton leads among superdelegates, 255-221, per the NBC News Political Unit count.

From NBC/NJ's Aswini Anburajan
At a town hall today, a second-grader asked Obama how exactly one gets the opportunity to run for president.

"Here's what you gotta do," the presidential hopeful told the boy, boiling the process down to few simple steps.

1. "You have to work really hard in school and get really good grades."
2. "Who is this your grandma?" Obama asked the boy. "You have to do everything that grandma tells you to do."
3. "When you get out of school, then you gotta go to college."
4. "After you go to college, you have to hopefully find a job that's helping other people, so that people appreciate that you're helping them, and they'll say that Michael will make a good president some day."

"If you do all those things, then you just might be a president some day," Obama told young Michael. The audience seemed to agree with the recipe, cheering wildly.

Obama, pointing to the boy's grandmother, said he and Michael's grandmother would wait and see if he could pull it off.

From NBC/NJ's Aswini Anburajan
WILKES-BARRE, Pa. -- As Congress holds hearings on Capitol Hill, demanding to know why oil and gas companies like Exxon-Mobil and Chevron are earning billions as the price of gas creeps upward, Obama made some promises of his own on how he would cut the cost of fuel.

"Gas prices are killing folks," Obama said. "I got an email from a friend of mine; it says, just in case you're not living in the real world, being driven around by Secret Service, it just cost me $85 to fill up my tank."

Referencing his Pennsylvania ad, which features Obama in at a gas station decrying the price of gas, Obama said Exxon-Mobil had made $11 billion in profits just last month. In Pennsylvania, according to the Web site, PennsylvaniaGasPrices.com, the average price of gas is $3.28 a gallon. One year ago, it was $2.69 per gallon.

"They have been in fat city for a long time," Obama said of Exxon and other oil and gas companies. "They are not necessarily putting that money into refinery capacity, which could potentially relieve some of the bottlenecks in our gasoline supply. And so that is something we have to go after. I think we can go after the windfall profits of some of these companies."

Obama, a proponent of ethanol, said the country needed to do more to increase production and incorporate ethanol that used sugarcane not just corn. He also said that the internal combustible engine had seen its last days.

"We should also be investing in new technologies," he said, "so we can replace the internal combustible engine, which has served us well, but it's time for us to move on, because we want to get rid of fossil fuels."

And in keeping with his campaign message, he offered a "hopeful" example of how the U.S. would find a way to meet its energy needs.

"When John F. Kennedy said we were going to the moon, the engineers and all those guys with the pocket protectors and the glasses at NASA, they all pulled out their slide rulers and said, 'How are we going to do that?' " Obama said. "They didn't know how it was going to get done. But once we set a clear goal and Americans buy into that goal, then nothing can stop us. The same is true on energy."

From NBC's Gabriel Herman
Former Congressman Tom Andrews, Ret. Lt. Generals William Odom and Robert Gard criticized the Iraq troop surge and described it as "mission impossible," in a conference call today.

Odom is scheduled to testify in front of Senate Foreign Relations Committee tomorrow, at which point, he said he will explain that the troop surge has left the United States in a worse situation while prolonging instability.

On the call, part of an effort by the Win Without War Coalition, Gard stressed Iraqis have failed to assume responsibility, arguing that, "we have not moved in any significant way to achieving that end. We are not resolving the core power sharing dispute."

Gard added that despite the troop surge, there has been an overall increase in sectarian violence while the number displaced Iraqis has doubled.
 
Andrews, national director of the coalition, ended the conference call directing Congress to fund "all dollars to provide a safe withdrawal of U.S. troops." Andrews went further and stressed the need for Iraq to develop diplomatic ties with neighboring countries including Iran, urged the closure of U.S. military bases inside Iraq and Guantanamo Bay.

From NBC's Ron Allen
You asked what happened to those Clinton pronouncements about raising $1 million a day? Well, today the senator insisted the campaigned raised $1 million yesterday, but going back from there, the campaign hasn't hit that million-dollar milestone every day.

The campaign claims it hit the million-dollar figure every day in February. But after March 4th, when Ohio and Texas voted, things changed. On March 5th, the campaign claims $3 million rolled in. Since then, though, the money has "ebbed and flowed." The ebbs might explain why Obama is outspending Clinton by some 5-to-1 on TV ads in Pennsylvania. And, as of last week, she wasn't even on air in Indiana and North Carolina, but Obama was spending $2 million a week, as he is in Pennsylvania, NBC News reported.

Nonetheless, as Sen. Clinton was about to leave today's press conference, she said assuredly, "We're raising the money we need, and we're paying our bills."

Still, she heads out West later this week to appear on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and will hold a few private gatherings to raise more money.

From NBC's Mark Murray
Earlier today, we noted that Obama -- as of last week -- is outspending Clinton 5-to-1 in TV advertising in upcoming primary states.

But pro-Clinton outside groups like the American Federation of Teachers are trying to close gap. The AFT is up with a new 60-second radio ad in Pennsylvania, which began airing yesterday, that features testimonials from Keystone State voters.

"Hillary can take on John McCain," says one.

"Hillary has the solutions to solve very complex problems," says another.

"When she gets knocked down, she gets up..."

"We need a fighter in the Oval Office."

The size of the buy is $325,000, bringing AFT's total spending on behalf of Clinton to $2 million.

From NBC/NJ's Athena Jones
PHILADELPHIA, Pa. -- Hillary Clinton said her campaign was well positioned when it came to fundraising, argued the public had not faulted her for her remarks about dodging sniper fire Bosnia and repeated that she had long opposed NAFTA in a press conference after delivering remarks to the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO.

She also talked about job creation and her goals for working with NATO and with Europe and talked a little bit about the legacy President George W. Bush would leave behind.

On NAFTA: "I spoke out against it inside the White House in the '92 campaign on more than one occasion, and there are many people who have attested to that, because they were in those meetings. The president made a different decision. You know, when you are part of an administration, you go along with what the president finally decides. Sometimes I was very much involved in speaking out on behalf of decisions, and they went the way that I wanted them to go and sometimes they didn't."

On national polls that show Obama's lead growing and on polls suggesting voters saw her as less trustworthy and whether that had anything to do with the flap over the Bosnia story: "I said it was a mistake, and I think that there are plenty of mistakes in speaking that both of us have made during the course of this campaign. I certainly am going to continue to, you know, speak out and talk about what is important and try to be, you know, very careful not to leave words out in what I say. But I think people know that I've been producing positive results for the American people for a number of years now. These polls go up and down. That's been the story of this campaign."

On fundraising: "We're doing well with fundraising. I feel very good that we're going to have the resources we need to compete. I think that you've got two candidates who have proven an amazing ability to raise money, and we're going to keep showing that."

When asked if she was still taking in $1 million a day: "I don't know the answer to that. I think we took in $1 million yesterday, but I can't say that for every day. I just don't know." And later: "We're raising the money we need, and we're paying our bills. We're keeping going." 

The senator added it was important to educate and train workers to ensure they could fill the jobs of the new economy.

On NATO and Europe: "I believe the relationship between America and Europe is critical to American foreign policy, to our standing in the world, our leadership, and I'm looking forward to deepening and strengthening that relationship. You know, there's a very important meeting going on in Bucharest in the next couple of days of NATO considering the admission of some additional countries and putting others in the waiting status that is so important for leading up to NATO membership. I am a strong supporter of expanding NATO."
 
She added that she hoped to work more closely with Europe on issues like climate change, combating terrorism, public health and regulating financial markets.

She also said she had to think about it, when asked if there was anything positive about the legacy Bush would leave behind, noting some specific smaller areas she agreed on and also her profound disagreements on foreign and domestic policy. "I think he is leaving a legacy of great damage to our nation," she said.

The press conference, which lasted for more than 20 minutes, was somewhat longer than usual, as Clinton kept taking questions even as her aides tried to end it.

The press conference began with Clinton challenging Obama to a winner-take-all bowl off, a joke to mark April Fool's Day.

From NBC's Ken Strickland
The troubled economy and the housing crisis are front and center in the Senate this week.  Later today, there will be a procedural vote on whether to start debate on a Democratic housing bill. But the usual partisan feuding -- Republicans want to change the bill, and Democrats don't like their proposed changes -- could leave the legislation in limbo. The vote is at 2:30 pm ET; 60 votes are needed to advance.

Off the Senate floor, there's more hand-wringing over the economy in the form of high-profile hearings. Tomorrow, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke testifies before the Joint Economic Committee about the economic outlook. On Thursday, Bernanke will be joined by Treasury Secretary Paulson and SEC Chairman Cox before the Banking Committee. The CEOs of Bear Stearns and JP Morgan Chase are also scheduled to testify.

While the much-anticipated Iraq hearings with General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker aren't until next week, Foreign Relations Chairman Joe Biden will start the Iraq discussions this week with three hearings under the banner "Iraq After The Surge." Tomorrow morning's hearing is on "military prospects," and in the afternoon it's "political prospects." On Thursday, the hearing is entitled, "Iraq 2012: What Can it Look Like, How Do We Get There?" 

(There are no administration or Pentagon officials scheduled to testify at any of the Foreign Relations hearings. The witnesses are primarily retired military, think tank types, and academics.)

From NBC's Mike Viqueira
At a stakeout of a closed-door House Dem meeting, Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she wants to see the Democratic nomination decided by July, and added once more that she hopes that superdelegates "vote their conscience" but do so in a way that is in accordance "with the will of the people."

She cited the enthusiasm and high level of participation in the Democratic contests so far, and said: "I want that participation to be sustained... Any outcome that appears to overturn the will of voters can have a detrimental effect on us [Democrats]."

From NBC/NJ's Adam Aigner-Treworgy
ALEXANDRIA, VA -- In the second edition of McCain's life-in-speech, the presumptive GOP nominee visited his alma mater, Episcopal High School, and gave a speech here about the importance of education in the formation of character.

Before the entire 400-plus EHS student body and additional members of the faculty assembled in the Flippin Field House, McCain repeatedly emphasized the importance of honor, the honor code, and the values that are imparted at school. Today, McCain also ventured into some educational policy areas –- albeit relatively safe territory for a conservative candidate -– calling for merit pay for teachers and school choice.

"We should reward the best [teachers] with merit pay, and encourage teachers who have lost their focus on the children they teach to find another line of work," McCain said. He then added that the country should encourage "military veterans to enter the teaching profession," because the honor they learn in the armed services are also important for children. 

After his prepared remarks, McCain fielded a few questions from the crowd, mostly focusing on the importance of the lessons he learned at Episcopal, what values he took from Episcopal, his greatest academic achievement at the school, and who will win the NCAA championship.

The boldest question came from junior Katelyn Halldorson who asked what exactly the senator was doing at her school: "I think judging by the amount of press representatives here and also by the integration of your previous political endorsements in your earlier personal narrative, we can see that this isn't completely absent -- er political motivation isn't completely absent. Yet we were told that this isn't a political event. So what exactly is your purpose in being here –- not that I don't appreciate the opportunity, but I'd just like some clarification."

"I knew I should have cut this thing off. This meeting is over," McCain joked, before going into a long description of his biography tour and it's emphasis on "the values and principles that guided me and I think a lot of this country in the past," in addition to providing "a vision of how I think we need to address the challenges of the future."

McCain concluded the visit to his alma mater by saying, "I hope that attendance here was not compulsory… I apologize if you were unwillingly in attendance here."

According to one EHS staff member, attendance was compulsory, although it was unclear what the punishment would have been if a student had refused to attend.

From NBC/NJ's Athena Jones
PHILADELPHIA, Pa. -- Hillary Clinton told a union crowd in the Keystone State Tuesday that investment in rebuilding the nation's roads and bridges and in public transit would create three million new jobs.

"My rebuild America plan will create a $10 billion emergency fund to identify and repair critical infrastructure problems and will modernize our transportation system," she said. "We can put at least 3 million Americans to work. We're also going to create at least five million additional jobs in green energy."

Spokesman Mo Elleithee said the three million jobs refers to infrastructure jobs over 10 years plus five million green-collar jobs over the same period for a grand total of eight million jobs.

The Economic Blueprint only had five million, because Clinton had yet to "assign a number" to the infrastructure jobs promised.

As has become common in recent days, the New York senator continued to criticize presumptive Republican nominee McCain for what she sees as his inability to manage the economy.

"John McCain admits he doesn't understand the economy -- and unfortunately he's proving that day after day on the campaign trail," she said. "He looked at the housing crisis, and he blamed consumers. His plan for the economy is to extend George Bush's tax cuts for billionaires and give a $100 billion additional corporate tax cut. The Bush/McCain philosophy could not be clearer -- it's the "ownership society," which really means, "You're on your own. If you're not a crony, if you're not wealth, if you're not well-connected, you fend for yourself."

She said even fellow Republican Sen. Mel Martinez had given McCain's economic plan an "incomplete," because it does not do enough to help families.

Notably, the senator did not take the opportunity to criticize McCain for gaffes made during his trip to the Middle East, instead keeping the focus on the economy.

Today's speech, which followed a visit to a nearby sheet metal plant, kicked off the fifth day of an economy tour aimed at highlighting Clinton's ability to be commander in chief of the economy, but at nearly every stop along the way, the New York senator has also addressed calls by some Obama supporters for her to get out of the race.

"Sen. Obama says he's getting tired of the campaign," she said. "His supporters say they want it to end. Well, could you imagine if Rocky Balboa had gotten half way up those Art Museum stairs and said, 'Well, I guess that's about far enough?' That's not the way it works. Let me tell you something, when it comes to finishing the fight, Rocky and I have a lot in common. I never quit. I never give up."

Obama himself has not called on Clinton to get out of the race.

The "Rocky" theme has been recurrent here in recent days, with songs from the movie often blaring before and after speaking engagements. Mark Nevins, the campaign's state communications director, argued in a briefing earlier today that people here can connect with Clinton's profile and that many see her as a fighter in the same vein. Keeping with the underdog-who-eventually-conquers theme, Clinton also campaigned with Sean Astin of "Rudy" movie fame while in Indiana.

Polls have consistently shown Clinton ahead in Pennsylvania, a must-win state for her. But Nevins acknowledged that did not mean the race here would be a cakewalk.

"Recent polls show some tightening. I think this is a natural process and not unexpected," he said. "The Obama campaign is outspending us in the state in the neighborhood of probably 3-to-1."

In fact, NBC News reported Obama is spending about $2 million a week in television advertising here as compared to Clinton's $400,000. Obama is also spending about the same in Indiana and North Carolina. Clinton is not yet on air in those states.

Nevins added Obama's strengths were in the big cities like Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, but that Clinton would give him a run for his money.

In introducing Clinton, AFSCME president Gerald McEntee noted that Sen. Bob Casey had spoken earlier to let everybody know that he was for Obama, but that he wanted everyone to know the 1.4-million member union was for Clinton. Still, he assured the crowd his union would support whoever becomes the Democratic nominee.

"We do have two great candidates. They are 10 times, 10 times, 10 times better than the boob that's in the White House and, arguably, also, and I hope this is true of American labor, whomever gets the Democratic nomination, you may rest assured that our union will carry the flag for that individual all the way to the White House," he said, adding that labor would lead the fight. "All the unions combined in America are prepared to spend $275 million" to keep McCain from winning.

McEntee also argued Clinton was against NAFTA from the start, saying, "Anybody that tries to hang it around her neck, is hanging it on the wrong neck." 

Clinton repeated her commitment to renegotiating NAFTA in her speech.

Early in her remarks, she hailed the importance of the labor movement, saying it had changed America for the better. "Unions are America," she proclaimed, before quoting Martin Luther King, Jr. "Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. summed up labor's significance before an AFL-CIO gathering much like this one. The labor movement, he said, was the principle force that transformed misery and despair into hope and progress," before going on to note that King was killed 40 years ago this week. 

Clinton also had a rejoinder for Sen. Casey early in her remarks. "I know that Sen. Casey was here earlier and I'm looking forward to inviting him to the White House," she said.

*** UPDATE *** The RNC responds: "Senator Clinton's attacks on John McCain are a desperate attempt to change the focus away from the divisive battle within the Democratic Party.  Rather than attack Senator McCain, Clinton should explain how she will pay for her massive, new spending proposals and why she plans to raise taxes on hardworking Pennsylvania families and businesses. On a side note, Rocky Balboa has spoken, and he's with John McCain."

From NBC's Andrea Mitchell
In an April Fool's Day newser, Clinton opened her media avail today by challenging Obama to a "bowl-off" in Pennsylvania.

She says its time for Obama to get out of the gutter. [Har, har.]

Now she's taking real questions about how to handle the energy crisis, etc. We'll have more on that ASAP...

*** UPDATE *** NBC/NJ's Athena Jones has more: Clinton approached the podium and said this had been a hard fought race and that something had to be done. And then she joked that the Obama campaign needed to "get out of the gutter."

"We don't have a moment to spare, because it's already April Fool's Day," she said, before going on to take other questions.