A round-up of this morning's must-read stories.

OBAMA TAKES THE OFFENSIVE VS. MCCAIN
(Scott Helman, Boston Globe)
Senator Barack Obama is kicking off his general election campaign in aggressive fashion, leveling daily, hard-hitting attacks on Republican John McCain designed to capitalize on the stark policy differences between them. Forgoing a softer introduction to the broader electorate, Obama and his advisers have decided to go right at McCain, calculating that the candidates' major distinctions on issues such as tax relief, the war in Iraq, and diplomacy play to their favor. They see an opening with President Bush's low approval ratings, the public wanting a fresh foreign policy approach, and American families feeling increasingly squeezed by high gasoline and food prices. The forceful tack is a departure from 2004, when Senator John F. Kerry, as he transitioned from the Democratic primary race to the fall campaign, sought to burnish his commander-in-chief credentials and downplay criticism of the president. It also serves notice to Democrats that Obama, despite vows to lead a new era of conciliatory politics, will not shy away from harsh critiques of McCain and his positions.

THE REFORMERS AS FUNDRAISERS
(Matthew Mosk and Michael D. Shear, Washington Post)
Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain are turning their undivided attention to the general election this week, loading their schedules with fundraising events that will fuel their campaign through the summer. But advisers to the White House hopefuls are also working feverishly to square their carefully crafted images as campaign finance reformers with the need to gather tens of millions of dollars. For McCain (R-Ariz.), that meant opening his fundraising events to reporters and television cameras for the first time, ending what had been a strict closed-door policy when the candidate mingled with donors. For Obama (D-Ill.), it meant passing up the chance to sock away funds for the general election and continue to collect only half the amount he is legally allowed as he dashes to fundraisers in New York, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Los Angeles and Jacksonville, Fla., in the next two weeks. Aides to Obama said that for now he will continue to forgo the chance to raise $2,300 per donor for the general election on top of the money he is raising for his primary-season account. Obama's campaign has delayed a decision on whether to accept public financing for the general election, but top donors and aides have urged him to become the first candidate in three decades to turn down public funds.

BARACK OBAMA IS THE $100 MILLION MAN
(Alexander Bolton, The Hill)
Leading Democratic fundraisers predict that Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) will raise hundreds of millions of dollars over the next few months if he opts out of public financing and begins raising money for the general election. Specifically, they say Obama could raise $100 million in June and could attract 2.5 million to 3 million new donors to his campaign. These fundraisers say Obama could increase his fundraising dramatically because of three factors: a boost of enthusiasm among Obama donors following his clinching of the nomination; the migration of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s (D-N.Y.) donors to his camp; and the mobilization of big Democratic donors who have given little so far this year. Record-breaking projections give Obama strong incentive to pass up $85 million in public funds that his opponent, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), has said he would accept. The question of whether to accept public financing has become a quandary for Obama. He appeared to pledge earlier in the campaign that he would if the Republican nominee did the same. Obama’s aides now claim he merely pledged to “pursue” a fundraising agreement with the Republican nominee.

RECORD GAS PRICES COULD HURT MCCAIN
(David Paul Kuhn, Politico)
More Americans now view energy as a serious concern than at the low point of the 1979 energy crisis, according to a Politico analysis of historical Gallup Polls. And the percentage of voters who consider energy issues “very important” in determining their vote has also risen dramatically since the last election, from 54 percent in October 2004 to 77 percent in a recent poll released by The Pew Research Center for the People & the Press — a percentage point increase nearly double that of any other issue...Thus far, it’s McCain who has most suffered from that irritation. On an issue that three in four registered voters believe will be “very important” in making their “decision about who to vote for this fall” — a greater portion of voters than those who cite terrorism, moral values or the war in Iraq — Pew shows Republicans lagging Democrats by 15 percentage points on who will give “greater priority” to energy. While McCain’s bid for the presidency is likely dependent on his ability to outperform the unpopular Republican brand, the same poll shows him trailing the GOP on the issue. He trails Obama by an even larger margin, 18 percentage points, among voters asked which candidate would better “deal” with the energy issue.

HILLARY'S FINAL CURTAIN
(Rebecca Traister, Salon)
Like it or not, Hillary Rodham Clinton was the first female battering ram to rattle the Oval Office door, and while sorrowful Hillary-heads may lyrically and lovingly catalog her many achievements, her bravery and grace, I'd prefer to think of her as she actually has been: a pain in the ass to support, an often inept and ungainly campaigner. She was ill-behaved, she made mistakes, and waged an often dirty and tone-deaf campaign, performing precious few electoral pirouettes. But she also pulverized any quaint notions of what presidential races are supposed to look like and how girls might compete in them... And, yes, it's terrific that generations of little girls will grow up knowing that women can run for president. But count me as gratified that those who do so will also know they are not responsible for bearing the highest expectations for their gender's morality and politesse, because one hell of a difficult dame has been there before them and knocked everybody around pretty hard.  

FOR CLINTON, MILLIONS IN CAMPAIGN DEBT AND LIMITED OPTIONS
(Michael Luo, New York Times)
With her campaign now officially suspended, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton is confronting still another challenge: whittling down what is believed to be the largest presidential campaign debt in history. Besides the $11.4 million of her own money that Mrs. Clinton lent her campaign, she had about $9.5 million in unpaid bills to vendors at the end of April, according to her most recent filing with the Federal Election Commission... Mrs. Clinton’s options for retiring her debt are limited... The most discussed option is for Mr. Obama, now the presumed nominee, to encourage his fund-raising team to help her with a series of joint events... Several Obama fund-raisers interviewed, however, said privately that they believed helping Mrs. Clinton with her debt would be difficult, given that they are also being asked to raise money for Mr. Obama and to build up the coffers of the Democratic National Committee, which badly trails the Republican National Committee in cash on hand. They also pointed out that some Obama donors would find it difficult to overcome the animosity they had built up during a long, hard-fought primary season.

IS THE WORLD READY FOR A BLACK AMERICAN PRESIDENT?
(Anne Applebaum, Slate)
President Obama wouldn't have to worry too much about angry stares from people at bus stops, of course, and it is fair to assume that prejudices harbored by the odd foreign leader will vanish in the presence of the U.S. president. In the rosiest scenario, an Obama presidency—or just an Obama candidacy—might even force a broader international discussion of race. Last year, Andrew Sullivan wrote eloquently about the way in which Obama's face, just by itself, will help change America's image around the world. By the same token, candidate Obama—merely by being who he is and looking like what he looks like—could begin to change European, Arab, and Asian attitudes about race. Millions of Africans would surely treat a U.S. president of African descent as "their" president, just for a start. But in the meantime, do not be surprised if there is some backlash. A hint of what might be hiding behind those enthusiastic headlines emerged last week in Obamamanic Germany, where Die Tageszeitung, a Berlin newspaper, put a photograph of the White House and the headline "Uncle Barack's Cabin" on its front page. The editors argued that their intention was satirical, but since the same newspaper has also referred to the current U.S. secretary of state as "Uncle Tom's Rice," it is clear that they understood the nastiness of the "Uncle Tom" connotation perfectly well.

BARACK OBAMA'S VICTORY STIRS MISSISSIPPI GHOSTS
(Faye Fiore, Los Angeles Times)
Much has changed here since African Americans like Sylvia Campbell, now 74, were told they couldn't vote unless they correctly answered how many bubbles were in a bar of soap. But much is the same. For all the excitement about Barack Obama and his history-making run for president, there is anxiety, too, because the present is still a hostage to the past. Everything in this slow town of one-way streets and more than 80 churches is viewed through the lens of race. Obama's success makes some people as anxious as it makes others proud... Racial tensions are not as violently overt as they were then; today the slights are subtle, from the glance averted on the street to the job application that is never considered. With five months of fierce presidential campaigning ahead -- black against white -- there is a sense that simmering racial tensions are about to boil again. "What happened all those years ago -- that just keeps coming up," said Doris Gray, 81, who is white. The presence of an out-of-town newspaper reporter in her son's chili cafe not 24 hours after Obama cinched the nomination confirmed her fear that people are going to start poking around in matters better left be.

OBAMA VETTER DRAWS UNWANTED SCRUTINY
(Lisa Lerer, Politico)
[Jim Johnson's] circumspect ways – rare in a town known for its shameless attention seekers – have helped make the reserved Minnesotan one of Washington’s most influential powerbrokers and an early pick by the Obama campaign to handle the sensitive search for a running mate. Yet despite Johnson’s legendary fastidiousness, his high-profile campaign role has suddenly exposed him to questions about his financial dealings. The questions range from his relationship with the embattled CEO of mortgage lender Countrywide Financial to his more recent oversight roles on various corporate compensation committees that approved hefty executive pay packages. In a presidential campaign where the subprime mortgage crisis and high corporate salaries figure to be staples of debate, Johnson is now at risk of becoming a political liability for Obama, who’s trying to sell anxious voters on an economic message that calls for stricter financial industry regulation and ridding Washington of special favors and tax breaks for wealthy CEOs. 

PRO-CHOICE DEMOCRATS AND JOHN MCCAIN
(Froma Harrop, Providence Journal)
Hillary Clinton's blessing notwithstanding, many of the New York senator's supporters will resist the handover to Barack Obama... A big sticking point for wavering Democrats will be McCain's position on reproductive rights. Clinton's backers are overwhelmingly pro-choice, and they'll want to know this: Would McCain stock the Supreme Court with foes of Roe v. Wade?... The answer is unclear but probably "no." While McCain has positioned himself as "pro-life" during this campaign, his statements over the years show considerable latitude on the issue. In a 1999 interview with the San Francisco Chronicle editorial board, McCain said, "I would not support repeal of Roe v. Wade, which would then force X number of women in America" to undergo "illegal and dangerous operations."... [But] addressing conservative South Carolinians last year, McCain said that Roe should be overturned. Primary politics or a change of mind? The former is my guess -- and also that in his current pursuit of Hillary Democrats we may see a softening of that position. Whatever McCain really thinks, the chances that he would submerge his presidency in the maelstrom of abortion politics seem slim. Partisan battles over court nominees aren't his thing, either.

MAD SKILLS: THE UPSIDE OF JIM WEBB'S ANGER
(Eve Fairbanks, New Republic)
The interesting thing about the angry-Webb mythology, though, is that it fascinates just as much as it frightens. Fellow Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill adoringly described Webb as a "street brawler," capturing the way some Democrats--call them the Jim Webb Orientalists--romanticize Webb's aggressive, exotically redneck roots and, by extension, his capacity to hormonally invigorate a party sick of its effete, wine-sipping image... And the specific trajectory of Webb's political anger--he's a former Republican now raging against a "Republican Party that continually seeks to politicize military service" and CEOs "openly consumed by self-justifying greed"--is powerfully appealing, too. He embodies the liberal fantasy laid out by Thomas Frank in What's the Matter With Kansas?: that blue-collar whites will stop being mad at liberals for frowning at their guns and start being mad at conservatives for raping their pocketbooks. His emotional journey is the same one liberals want lower-class whites to undergo en masse. For these reasons, Jim Webb's anger would seem to make him an especially powerful vice-presidential choice for the refined and white-working-class-alienating Barack Obama. But the researchers vetting Obama's shortlist must be vexed by a question: Is Jim Webb a vessel for the kind of righteous indignation the Democrats need--or is he just too angry to be vice president?

A LIST BIDEN BELONGS ON
(E.J. Dionne, Washington Post)
Why Biden? In part because of where he took our discussion: Few Democrats know more about foreign policy, and few would so relish the fight against McCain on international affairs. Few are better placed to argue that withdrawal from Iraq will strengthen rather than weaken the United States. The worst thing in a running mate is the fear of muddying his or her image in political combat. Biden would be a happy warrior. He was born in Scranton, Pa., an essential state for Democrats, and has been a regular in the Philadelphia media market. Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, himself a plausible No. 2, has called Biden "a perfect fit." The senator has been through two of his own presidential campaigns, in which he experienced what an acquaintance of his called the "white-hot heat" of scrutiny. Biden is Catholic and hails from a blue-collar world, two constituencies with which Obama needs help. The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and former chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Biden speaks with real learning on international affairs and the judiciary -- the next vacancies on the Supreme Court should be a big issue in this campaign -- while never sounding like an elitist.