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

MAKE THE ELECTION ABOUT IRAQ
(Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post)
The disconnect between what Democrats are saying about Iraq and what is actually happening there has reached grotesque proportions. Democrats won an exhilarating electoral victory in 2006 pledging withdrawal at a time when conditions in Iraq were dire and we were indeed losing the war. Two years later, when everything is changed, they continue to reflexively repeat their "narrative of defeat and retreat" (as Joe Lieberman so memorably called it) as if nothing has changed. It is a position so utterly untenable that John McCain must seize the opportunity and, contrary to conventional wisdom, make the Iraq war the central winning plank of his campaign. Yes, Americans are war-weary. Yes, most think we should not have engaged in the first place. Yes, Obama will keep pulling out his 2002 speech opposing the war. But McCain's case is simple. Is not Obama's central mantra that this election is about the future, not the past? It is about 2009, not 2002.

OBAMA, LIBERALISM AND THE CHALLENGE OF REFORM
(David Brooks, New York Times)
Is Barack Obama really a force for change, or is he just a traditional Democrat with a patina of postpartisan rhetoric? That question is surprisingly hard to answer. When you listen to his best speeches, you see a person who really could herald a new political era. But when you look into his actual policies, you often find a list of orthodox liberal programs that no centrist or moderate conservative would have any reason to support. To investigate this question, I looked more closely into Obama’s education policies... He’s for the vast panoply of pre-K and after-school programs that most of us are for. But the crucial issues are: What do you do with teachers and administrators who are failing? How rigorously do you enforce accountability? Obama doesn’t engage the thorny, substantive matters that separate the two camps... Obama endorses many good ideas and is more specific than the McCain campaign, which hasn’t even reported for duty on education. But his education remarks give the impression of a candidate who wants to be for big change without actually incurring the political costs inherent in that enterprise.

WILL THE REAL TAX-AND-SPENDER PLEASE 'FESS UP?
(Larry Rohter, New York Times)
With the general election in full gear, Senator John McCain has stepped up efforts to paint his rival, Senator Barack Obama, as what he calls a traditional Democratic tax-and-spend liberal. On Tuesday, for instance, Mr. McCain, addressing a business gathering, accused Mr. Obama of wanting to enact “the largest single tax increase since World War II.”... Economists of various ideological persuasions, however, view Mr. McCain’s assessment as inaccurate or exaggerated. Some question whether Mr. Obama’s tax plan can even be characterized as an increase. Some also argue that contrary to Mr. McCain’s assertions, the Democrat’s proposals, if enacted, would actually reduce taxes for the middle class — the voters both candidates see as the key to victory. 

GESTURE POLITICS
(Rich Lowry, New York Post)
For a politician whose forte has never been domestic policy, McCain has a peculiar taste for complex, verging on unworkable, regulatory schemes - from campaign-finance reform, to comprehensive immigration reform, to a cap-and-trade system limiting carbon emissions. The attraction for McCain of these plans isn't their intricacies, but their symbolism. Campaign-finance reform demonstrated his incorruptibility; comprehensive immigration reform his belief in an America open to all comers; cap-and-trade his commitment to fight global warming. These positions were all the more alluring in that they placed McCain in opposition to what he considered the loose ethics, nativism and head-in-the-sand denial of global warming of his own party. They marked him as a bold reformer refusing to compromise himself: Here I stand, I can do no other. Without this branding, McCain wouldn't have a chance this year. But a gestural politics of personal honor has its limits - namely that there's very little in it for anyone besides you. McCain's other domestic crusade has been pounding his fellow politicians for giving constituents what they want, but shouldn't get: earmarked spending that isn't justified by the general welfare. If this is all very admirable, it's not a good fit for the public mood when rising energy prices mean that the average worker's wages are falling.

OBAMA RISKS 'PRISTINE' IMAGE IN QUESTION OF PUBLIC FINANCING
(Kristin Jensen and Jonathan D. Salant, Bloomberg News)
Barack Obama learned the pitfalls of claiming the moral high ground this week when a top adviser resigned under pressure. His next challenge is whether to forfeit a huge financial edge over Republican John McCain or renege on a promise to accept public-funding limits. Obama pledged in March 2007 to pursue an agreement with the Republicans to participate in the public-financing system, which is designed to limit the influence of big money. That was before he began shattering private-fundraising records. Strategists from both parties say the presumptive Democratic nominee would have an advantage of more than $100 million in the general election if he declines public money and its spending restrictions. The question is how much criticism he'd take for becoming the first presidential candidate to opt out of the system, which dates back to the Watergate era.

MEDIA AND CRITICS SPLIT OVER SEXISM IN CLINTON COVERAGE
(Katharine Q. Seeyle and Julie Bosman, New York Times)
Angered by what they consider sexist news coverage of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, many women and erstwhile Clinton supporters are proposing boycotts of the cable networks, putting up videos on a “Media Hall of Shame,” starting a national conversation about sexism and pushing Mrs. Clinton’s rival, Senator Barack Obama, to address the matter. But many in the news media — with a few exceptions, including Katie Couric, the anchor of the “CBS Evening News” — see little need for reconsidering their coverage or changing their approach going forward. Rather, they say, as the Clinton campaign fell behind, it exploited a few glaring examples of sexist coverage to whip up a backlash and to try to create momentum for Mrs. Clinton.

TOWNHALL: MCCAIN'S COMFORT ZONE
(Michael D. Shear and Juliet Eilperin, Washington Post)
The risks are huge for McCain. He is essentially betting the presidency on a series of side-by-side performances with his rival in a largely uncontrolled environment. As evidence of the danger, McCain's most famous gaffes have come during town hall meetings. It was at a January town hall in Derry, N.H., that McCain said it would be "fine with me" if U.S. troops stay in Iraq for 50 years or more, providing a sound bite that his political rivals have put to great use. "Make it a hundred," he said, cutting off the questioner as a bit of annoyance showed through. When McCain is on his own, town hall audiences are generally filled with Republicans, most of whom are supporters and often allow him to joke or finesse his way out of tough answers. The dynamic with Obama would be different, with a more skeptical audience and with McCain's chief rival on stage ready to challenge his answers... It could give Obama a chance to upstage McCain, looking presidential in the one forum that had been exclusively McCain's. Although Obama's performance in debates was more uneven than his formal speechmaking, McCain's advisers say they do not believe the Harvard-educated lawyer will flop in a town hall.

OBAMA MOVES QUICKLY TO RESHAPE DNC
(Ben Smith and David Paul Kuhn, Politico)
Barack Obama's move to merge key elements of the Democratic National Committee into his own campaign's Chicago headquarters appears aimed at the goal of a centralized and united Democratic Party. The shift of the DNC's political and field organizing operations to Chicago will consolidate the Democratic presidential campaign apparatus more than in either of the last two cycles, when staffers at DNC headquarters overlapped - and occasionally competed - with aides to Al Gore and John Kerry. Obama's move also seemed aimed at producing minimum conflict: The DNC didn't immediately fire any of its staff, and Obama's aides have publicly embraced DNC Chairman Howard Dean's vision of a party competitive in all 50 states. But it also left no doubt about where the new center of power lies: On the 11th floor of an undistinguished office tower on Michigan Avenue

OBAMA CAMPAIGN DISPATCHING THOUSANDS
(Peter Slevin, Washington Post)
Moving to harness the grass-roots energy that helped win the Democratic nomination, Sen. Barack Obama's campaign will deploy 3,600 volunteers in 17 states this weekend, each committed to six consecutive weeks of full-time political work. The project, launched two months before the senator from Illinois became the presumptive nominee, is a measure of his determination to out-organize Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in states that could swing a close election. The campaign put out word in April about "Obama Organizing Fellowships," an approach that went well beyond the "y'all come" model of luring volunteers with free doughnuts for two-hour canvassing stints. Supporters were required to answer essay questions, supply references and go through a telephone interview with campaign staff members. In return for a promise to give the campaign at least six weeks of their lives, they were promised training in community organizing techniques...  More than 10,000 people applied, said Obama strategist Jon Carson.

MCCAIN AND OBAMA SPLIT ON SUPREME COURT'S GUANTANAMO RULING
(Kate Zernike, New York Times)
The presidential candidates took differing positions Thursday on the Supreme Court decision granting foreign terrorism suspects at Guantánamo Bay a right to challenge their detention in civilian courts. Senator John McCain expressed concern about the ruling, while Senator Barack Obama lauded it. Mr. McCain and Mr. Obama have both long advocated closing the Guantánamo detention center but have disagreed on the rights of prisoners there. Mr. McCain said here Thursday morning that he had not had time to read the decision but that “it obviously concerns me,” adding, “These are unlawful combatants; they’re not American citizens.”... Mr. Obama issued a statement calling the decision “a rejection of the Bush administration’s attempt to create a legal black hole at Guantánamo” that he said was “yet another failed policy supported by John McCain.”

FULL METAL MCCAIN
(Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone)
The idea that John McCain is kicking off his trek to the White House by fleeing at top-end speed from the faltering Republican brand is the kind of absurdly facile misperception that only the American campaign press could swallow whole. The reality is that the once independent-thinking McCain has by now completely remade himself into a prototypical, dumbed-down Republican Party stooge — one who plans to rely on the same GOP strategy that has been winning elections ever since Pat Buchanan and Dick Nixon cooked up a plan for cleaving the South back in 1968. Rather than serving up the "straight talk" he promises, McCain is enthusiastically jumping aboard with every low-rent, fearmongering... presidential aspirant who's ever traveled the Lee Atwater/William Safire highway. Even the briefest of surveys of the supporters gracing McCain's events underscores the kind of red-meat appeal he's making. Immediately after his speech in New Orleans, a pair of sweet-looking old ladies put down their McCain signs long enough to fill me in on why they're here. "I tell you," says one, "if Michelle Obama really doesn't like it here in America, I'd be very pleased to raise the money to send her back to Africa."

MICHELLE OBAMA BECOMES GOP TARGET
(Carrie Budoff Brown, Politico)
Former Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger leveled the first blow, introducing Republican John McCain’s wife at a fundraiser this week as someone who is “proud of her country, not just once but always.” Obama wasn’t mentioned by name, but the audience got it. The dig signaled the start of what Democrats expect will be a concerted effort to cast Michelle Obama — and, by extension, Barack Obama — as an unpatriotic radical. It also pointed out the urgency to define Michelle Obama to general election voters before the opposition goes too far in doing it for her, strategists said. 

HUCK YEAH
(Ross Douthat, New Republic)
In passing over Huckabee--as he almost certainly will--McCain will be passing over a politician who embodies more than a few of the traits that the Arizona senator ought to be looking for in a running mate, both in terms of reinforcing his strengths and balancing out his weaknesses. Like McCain, Huckabee has self-consciously branded himself a "different kind of Republican," which happens to be the only sort of Republican with a chance to win the White House this November. But he's a different kind of "different kind of Republican" than the Arizona senator--a competent governor rather than a maverick legislator, with a record that's defined by kitchen-table issues like health care, education, and transportation rather than the more boutique causes (campaign-finance reform, say, or the crusade against earmarks) that McCain tends to champion.