From NBC/NJ's Matthew E. Berger
PHILADELPHIA -- Sen. Bob Casey just finished speaking at the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO conference, and appeared well aware that he was speaking just an hour before Clinton.

Casey, who endorsed Obama with much fanfare last week, struck a conciliatory tone, saying that while he had made a choice, he believed both Democratic candidates would enjoy strong union support.

"We have to be honest with each other about differences, even difference that may melt away in the months ahead," he said. "We're gonna have a debate, we're gonna have a discussion, we might even have a few arguments, but in the end of this process, Democrats will come together."

Obama will address the AFL convention tomorrow.

From NBC's Domenico Montanaro
NBC News has allocated the remaining nine Texas caucus delegates, 7-2, in favor of Obama. That means the Illinois senator has won the most delegates, 99-94, as a result of both the Texas primary and caucuses.

Obama now leads by 129 in the overall delegate count, 1637-1508. Obama leads by 162 pledged delegates, 1415-1253. (There remains just one delegate unallocated from Democrats Abroad.) Clinton leads among superdelegates, 255-222, per the NBC News Political Unit count.

Also note, the Obama campaign has passed around that it has picked up two delegates in Mississippi, showing Obama with a 20-13 lead. NBC News' count remains 19-14 for Obama so far.

From Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, and Domenico Montanaro 
*** The long campaign gap: It's been three weeks since the last primary (Mississippi on March 11), and it's three more weeks until the next primary (Pennsylvania on April 22). That gap appears to be hurting Clinton this week in the same vein that the five-week gap between New Hampshire and Super Tuesday in 2000 hurt Bill Bradley when he had nothing to point to after narrowly losing New Hampshire that year: With no primary to fight, the candidate in the lead gets to look stronger and more insurmountable than perhaps he or she would have had there been a primary or two in between. Clinton is dealing with this constant should-she-stay-or-should-she-go drumbeat because there's nothing else to point to right now; there isn't even another debate for another two-plus weeks. Another advantage that Obama holds right now is money. The Clinton campaign is maintaining that its cash flow is good, but just asking: What happened to those constant Clinton announcements a month ago that they were bringing in $1 million-plus a day online? And how is it that Obama outspent Clinton 5-to-1 on TV last week, per TV ad analyst Evan Tracey? Obama spent $2 million on ads in Pennsylvania, Indiana, and North Carolina, compared with Clinton's $400,000 in Pennsylvania.

VIDEO: NBC Political Director Chuck Todd offers his first read on John McCain's "100-year" problem, the voting gap and Bill Clinton's busy schedule.

*** The enthusiasm gap: Despite some of the hand-wringing that the Obama-Clinton contest has gone on too long and could damage the party in November, here's some news that should cheer up weary Democrats. Per NBC/NJ's Matthew Berger, there have been 101,499 new Democratic applications and 132,688 switches to the Democratic Party in Pennsylvania since January 1. That's compared with 32,191 citizens who have signed up on the Republican roles and 13,937 who have switched to the GOP. Overall, Democrats hold a 4.1 million-to-3.2 million registration advantage over the Republicans in the state. Sure, some of the new voters registering to vote in the upcoming Democratic primary could be Limbaugh Republicans. But this activity -- plus the fact that there are nearly a million more registered Democrats in this very important battleground state -- should be welcome news to the Dems. Meanwhile, Obama's supporters seem to be backing away from the getting-out refrain. Could it be that the constant Clinton argument of "Let everyone's vote be heard" is helping her in the remaining states? Do Pennsylvania, Indiana, and North Carolina voters want to vote in a primary that counts and therefore are turned off by any push to end the race?

*** The 100-Year War: Not a day has gone by recently when the McCain campaign or the RNC hasn't pushed back aggressively when either Obama or Clinton has mentioned -- in some fashion -- that McCain wants to keep US troops in Iraq for 100 years. They know the legend of the comment has gotten out of hand (much like Al Gore inventing the internet), and they are trying VERY hard to put the toothpaste back into the tube. They are petrified that it becomes the one thing everyone thinks they know about McCain and Iraq. The McCain campaign, in fact, declared victory of sorts when it passed around Obama's statement yesterday that McCain's 100-year comment referred to a peacetime commitment (a la South Korea) and not a 100-year war. The RNC also issued a release on the matter this morning. "With Barack Obama finally acknowledging today John McCain does not support a 100-year war in Iraq, we expect that he will answer his own calls for a more honest debate and stop playing crude politics with such an important issue," McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds said in a statement. Still, this 100-year comment has taken on a life of its own, and even though McCain's folks believe the facts are on their side, so did Al Gore's folks when it came to the internet and Love Canal.

*** But is this still ground on which the GOP wants to fight? Yet here is what Obama said yesterday: "Well we've been in South Korea for 50 years … and we're spending $10 billion a month in Iraq right now. Which means that John McCain is willing to sign up for the prospect of spending as much as $150 billion or more each year for who knows how long. That is something that the US can't afford, and I think that is going to be a debate we are going to have in the general election should I be the nominee." This is why it's important how the Iraq debate in the fall is framed. If it's framed as who can get troops out faster, the Dem is going to win that argument. If McCain can shift the debate frame to who can keep Iraq stable and win this war, he has a chance. The question, of course, is whether the public has the stomach for a recommitment to winning in Iraq.

*** Clinton-Gore redux? One of the best rumors of the day is this idea that Al Gore is pondering a Clinton endorsement in exchange for a place on the ticket. Apparently, Gore wants to relive the Clinton-Gore years with Hillary in the Oval Office as long as he gets to own the climate issue. In addition, this sets up Gore to perhaps run in four years as one of the ways Clinton enticed Gore into doing this was a promise of serving just one term. It's a stunning development that's completely believable on a day like this, April 1. By the way, be prepared for lots of  "Clinton's dropping out" jokes today, and if you can't figure out why, then you need to get a sense of humor.

*** Back to school: McCain begins the second leg of his "Service to America" tour with a speech this morning at his alma mater, Episcopal High School in Alexandria, VA. Per excerpts of his remarks, McCain will focus on the value of education. "I doubt I will ever meet another person who had the impact on my life that my English teacher at Episcopal High School did," he is expected to say. "But I know there are many Americans who should teach and could influence children as beneficially as he did me. All children should have a teacher like I had, who they remember when they have children and grandchildren as one of the most fortunate relationships in their lives." In addition, McCain does Letterman tonight. It's also worth pointing out that McCain's speech in Mississippi didn't necessarily get a huge pickup in newscasts and today's newspapers. Yet another sign of his difficulty breaking through the Obama-Clinton storyline?

*** On the trail: Elsewhere today, both Clinton and Obama remain in Pennsylvania -- in fact, they both have stops in Wilkes-Barre. Clinton begins her day touring MJ Donovan Company in Philadelphia, then speaks to the state AFL-CIO in Philadelphia, then does an economic town hall in Wilkes-Barre, and finally holds a rally in Erie. Obama, meanwhile, starts by holding a town hall in Wilkes-Barre and then heads to another one in Scranton.

*** Bill watch: Also today, Bill Clinton campaigns in Montana, after spending time in Oregon. In the last few weeks, no one has kept a busier schedule than Bill -- not even Hillary or Obama has done more events in more states, it seems. Seriously, count up the individual events he holds in a day and you'll see this is a guy that's actually doing more daily events than his wife or her chief rival. More importantly, why is it the campaign believes sending Bill in first to a new primary state is the way to go? Apparently, he's headed to Puerto Rico soon -- again before Hillary.
 
Countdown to Pennsylvania: 21 days
Countdown to North Carolina, Indiana: 35 days
Countdown to Election Day 2008: 217 days
Countdown to Inauguration Day 2009: 294 days
 
Click here to sign up for First Read emails.
Text FIRST to 622639, to sign up for First Read alerts to your mobile phone.

The New York Times looks at previous delegate fights and how they took a toll on the eventual nominee. "For all the sirens warning of disaster, history offers mixed guidance on whether spirited primary fights are fatal. Many historians and analysts say that while protracted primaries can weaken a nominee, bigger factors are usually at play. Voters are often swayed by whether they feel the country is headed in the right direction. They take into account whether primary battles are personal or political. They want to see whether the winner and the loser can patch things up. And time can make a difference."

Perhaps Dems were doomed in both 1980 and 1984, but the primary fights appeared to make the GOP's that much easier.

Last night, the Obama campaign proclaimed -- after Mississippi certified the results of its primary earlier this month, 62.51% for Obama to 37.49% for Clinton -- that Obama had a net gain of seven delegates in the states (20-13) versus five (19-14).

And of those nine remaining Texas delegates, "Obama picked up seven of nine outstanding delegates, giving him a total of 99 Texas delegates to the party's national convention this summer. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton won the other two, giving her a total of 94 Texas delegates, according to an analysis of returns by The Associated Press."

The Politico asked a delegate expert to project the makeup of the credentials committee, which is based on delegates earned (big states first), as well as 25 members appointed by Dean. There's little change Clinton will control a majority but Obama may only control a very NARROW majority since, for instance, a candidates victory in a large state gets a little more weight in this allocation process than simply the candidate who wins the most delegates overall.

On some in the Democratic Party calling for Clinton to drop out… "My take on it is a lot of Senator Obama's supporters want to end this race because they don't want people to keep voting," Clinton told a local TV station in Billings, Mont. "That's just the opposite of what I believe. We want people to vote. I want the people of Montana to vote, don't you?" The Obama campaign rejected the charge, dismissing Clinton's criticism as "completely laughable."

Michigan Democratic Congressman Bart Stupak is the latest MI/FL Dem with a delegate-split plan. In a letter to the DNC, "Stupak suggested awarding the 83 pledged delegates from the state to be decided upon at congressional district conventions next month based on the results of the disallowed primary election – with 47 going to Hillary Clinton and 36 who voted 'uncommitted' going to Barack Obama. Then, he suggested splitting the state's remaining 73 delegates -- those which would be elected at a state central committee meeting in May as well as the state's so-called superdelegates -- based on the percentage of the popular vote each gets nationwide after the last primary in June."

The RNC has unveiled a new Web site that seizes on the fact that Democratic superdelegates will end up deciding the eventual Dem nominee. "Great Scott!" the site says. "The power to choose does not belong to the Democrat voters. Find out who really chooses the Democrat nominee."

The L.A. Times notes how McCain and Obama clashed on Iraq yesterday. "Responding to Obama's frequent mocking of McCain's suggestion that U.S. troops might remain in Iraq for 100 years, the Republican nominee-in-waiting said the Illinois senator failed to understand that America has kept forces in Korea, Japan, Germany and Kuwait long after wars in each country ended. 'In all due respect, it displays a fundamental misunderstanding of history, of how we've maintained national security, and what we need to do in the future to maintain our security in the face of the transcendent challenge of radical Islamic extremism,' McCain told reporters on his campaign plane. 'And I understand that, because he has no experience or background in any of it,' McCain added."

"Obama and other critics have dogged McCain over his remark in New Hampshire last year that the U.S. might keep troops in Iraq for as long as 100 years." More: "Campaigning Monday in Allentown, Obama questioned McCain's judgment -- and that of New York Sen. Clinton -- in voting to authorize the war in Iraq. 'John McCain and Hillary Clinton, they had a chance to make a good decision on the most important foreign-policy issue of a generation, and they got it wrong,' Obama told a crowd of 4,000 at Muhlenberg College."

When asked yesterday about how he would respond to McCain's "Service to America" tour, Obama replied, per NBC/NJ's Aswini Anburajan: "I think it would be foolish to critique John McCain for being an American patriot. The guy's a war hero. He was a POW for years, and endured horrendous treatment and torture. So I would never challenge John McCain's patriotism." Obama added that he didn't expect McCain to play the patriotism card against his eventual Democratic opponent.

"To his credit, I haven't heard John McCain going around challenging other people's patriotism. I think John McCain, like many veterans, tend not to suggest that other people are unpatriotic," he said. Obama also said that he would challenge McCain on other grounds, including the Iraq war, his "absence" of a solution on the mortgage-lending crisis, and the Bush tax cuts. "But I would never challenge him on his patriotism, because I think that he has earned the honor and the respect of the American people on that front."

PENNSYLVANIA (April 22): Here's a look at the delegates who are actually being elected on April 22, and suggestions that they are free to change their votes: "Three of the state's superdelegates and 55 of its pledged delegates will be chosen in June at the convention of the Democratic State Committee, which is heavily influenced by Gov. Rendell and whose chairman is T.J. Rooney. Both are strong Clinton supporters. Could party leaders stack the deck, handing Clinton the three superdelegates, and assigning Obama pledged delegates whose loyalty is questionable? "Absolutely not, says Rooney."

INDIANA (May 6): Bloomberg News looks at how the Wright controversy is playing in Indiana. "Interviews with dozens of Democrats in this overwhelmingly white region -- where voters will go to the polls in the May 20 primary -- suggest residual concerns over the controversy involving Obama's former pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright. To be sure, this flies in the face of most polls taken after Obama's widely praised March 18 speech on race and the Wright controversy."

Doesn't this lead in the Los Angeles Times exemplify the problem Clinton faces right now? "In one of their sharpest exchanges of the presidential campaign, Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama clashed over the Iraq war on Monday, with each challenging the other's credentials on national security. Meanwhile, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Obama's rival for the party's nomination, went after Obama's supporters for urging her to exit the race."

The Wall Street Journal looks at the trust issue Clinton still has with voters. It's now April of 2008, if Clinton hasn't fixed this issue after 15 months on the campaign trail, will she ever fix it.

Per NBC/NJ's Mike Memoli, Bill Clinton relied on the support of Jack Murtha and Joe Wilson to defend his wife's record on Iraq, challenging a member of the audience at an event yesterday in Oregon. Clinton, during an event at a community college in the state capital of Salem, was touting Hillary's fitness to be commander in chief when someone shouted out that she voted for the Iraq war. "That may be what you think, but that's not accurate," Clinton responded. "I think it's very interesting that people believe they should not vote for Hillary because of Iraq. Now that's a hoot."
 
He then referred to the endorsement by Murtha, whom he called "the most respected anti-war congressman in the entire House of Representatives," and Wilson, whom he said "paid a terrible price for refusing to lie about the intelligence on Iraq." Bill continued, "He's for Hillary. And you know why? Because he knows that the popular explanation of who said what when and who did what when that you've been told doesn't hold water. Now what really matters is what we're gonna do now."
 
As Clinton continued, the same audience member shouted out to ask what would happen if the US left Iraq, leaving the former president a bit frustrated. "You wanna give this speech?" he asked, prompting laughter and applause from the rest of the crowd. "You've been trying to interrupt it ever since I started." He then took a jovial turn, offering the man a deal. "You let me give my talk and then you go outside and everybody who wants to come here you can do it," he said. "I don't mind making a crowd for you, I just don't want to have to share the minutes I've got."

Washington Post's Shear and Balz look at the McCain campaign machine: "One of McCain's first decisions has been to assemble a novel and risky campaign structure that will rely on 10 'regional managers' who will make daily decisions in the states under their direction, his advisers said. The managers will gather today in New Mexico to plot strategy with GOP state officials."

"Some Republican strategists have said that McCain has not made the best use of the extra time that the prolonged Democratic nomination battle has given him. They have criticized the pace and direction of his decisions and have questioned why the senator from Arizona has not held more fundraisers to close the huge financial gap between him and his rivals. Despite scheduling numerous events designed to grab attention, including a trip to meet with leaders in Iraq, Israel and Europe, McCain has struggled to be heard during the battle between Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama. The few times he has broken through have largely been because of questionable decisions or mistakes, such as when he confused Sunni and Shiite extremists and when he was criticized for accepting the endorsement of a controversial television evangelist."

So far, the RNC has $25 million to help McCain.

Here's a prediction: If McCain has to step foot in Mississippi one more time for any reason other than naming Haley Barbour his running mate, it'll mean a landslide is coming. McCain spent two days in the state.

The McCain campaign is up with another Web video tied to the candidate's "Service to America" tour. 

The DNC, meanwhile, has unveiled three new Web videos that hit McCain for some of the supposed slip-ups he's made on the trail and elsewhere.

McCain spoke to reporters for nearly an hour on the plane ride back to DC from Mississippi last night, NBC/NJ's Adam Aigner-Treworgy reports. He talked about the new plan put out by Treasury Secretary Paulson; he elaborated on his feelings of 'surprise' over the situation in Basra; he responded to Obama's critique that he has no definition of success in Iraq; and he talked at length about his definition of Al Qaeda and his views on funding the war.

Michelle Obama is campaigning with Teresa Heinz Kerry today in Pittsburgh. 

Author Alice Walker has an op-ed in the Guardian of London supporting Obama. "It is hard to relate what it feels like to see Mrs Clinton (I wish she felt self-assured enough to use her own name) referred to as 'a woman' while Barack Obama is always referred to as 'a black man'. One would think she is just any woman, but she is not. She carries all the history of white womanhood in the US in her person; it would be a miracle if we, and the world, did not react to this fact. How dishonest it is, to try to make her innocent of her racial inheritance."

"I can easily imagine Obama sitting down and talking to any leader -- or any person -- in the world, with no baggage of past servitude or race supremacy to mar their talks. I cannot see the same scenario with Clinton, who would drag into 21st-century US leadership the same image of white privilege and distance from others' lives that has so marred the country's contacts with the rest of the world."

Is Obama getting more comfortable with populist talk? The New York Times: "Obama's effort to master a plain-spoken and blunt language that extends back centuries in Pennsylvania is accompanied by no small stakes. Voters here, as in neighboring Ohio, where Mr. Obama lost the white and aging blue-collar vote, tend to elect politicians whose language rarely soars and whose policy prescriptions come studded with detail." 

The Tampa Tribune wonders if Obama as the nominee can play and win in Florida.

The Boston Globe: "[I]t is Obama, a first-term Illinois senator running against the conventions of Washington, who is increasingly benefiting from institutional support - bolstering his campaign during a rough month when he lost two key primaries and faced questions about his spiritual mentor."

Does the pro-life community now have some Obama words to fire up its troops? "Speaking about sex education at an event in Pennsylvania Saturday, Obama said, according to the Christian Broadcasting Network, that he will educate his young daughters but 'if they make a mistake, I don't want them punished with a baby. I don't want them punished with an STD at the age of 16.' Conservative talker Sean Hannity mentioned the quotes on his radio show Monday, and several conservative blogs have reacted harshly to the statement."

"Tommy Vietor, an Obama spokesman, sought to clarify the senator's comments in an e-mail to The Hill Monday afternoon. 'What Sen. Obama said and what he believes is clear -- children are "miracles," but we have a problem when so many children are having children,' Vietor said. 'As Sen. Obama said on Saturday -- and on many other occasions -- parents have a responsibility to teach their children about values and morals to help make sure they are not treating sex casually. And while he understands the passions on both sides of this difficult issue, Sen. Obama believes we can all agree that we should be taking steps to reduce the number of teen pregnancies and abortions in this country.'"

The Washington Times has a bankshot gotcha of sorts against Obama regarding Rev. Wright. "The church where Sen. Barack Obama has worshipped for two decades publicly declares that its ministry is founded on a 1960s book that espouses 'the destruction of the white enemy.' Trinity United Church of Christ's Web site says its teachings are based on the black liberation theology of James H. Cone and his 1969 book 'Black Theology and Black Power.'"

"'What we need is the divine love as expressed in Black Power, which is the power of black people to destroy their oppressors here and now by any means at their disposal. Unless God is participating in this holy activity, we must reject his love,' Mr. Cone wrote in the book. Mr. Cone, a professor at the Union Theological Seminary in New York, added that 'black theology will accept only the love of God which participates in the destruction of the white enemy.'"

Now, read the actual mission statement, it's not clear that's the intended message.

In the New Republic, there's a discussion about Jim Webb as Obama's veep. Two things he brings: he's a gruff white guy who can talk economic populism in Southern Ohio; and, perhaps, more importantly he can go toe-to-toe with McCain on Iraq and may even have little problem going after McCain.