Politico - WATERTOWN, S.D. - By most measures, the American public is not focused on Iraq. Polls show the economy is more prominent in the minds of voters, the media is spending less time covering the war and the presidential candidates are barely debating it.

AP - Republican Mike Huckabee responded to an offstage noise during his speech Friday to the National Rifle Association by suggesting it was Barack Obama diving to the floor because someone had aimed a gun at him.

AP - Barack Obama laid into John McCain on Friday for advancing a tough-guy foreign policy that he called "naive and irresponsible," serving notice that he's ready to launch a full-throttle challenge to the Republican presidential contender on international relations in the general election campaign.

AP - As head of the deep-pocketed Democratic Senatorial Campaign Commission, New York Sen. Charles Schumer hand-picked his party's nominee to take on Oregon Sen. Gordon Smith, the last Republican standing on the West Coast. But apparently, Schumer forgot to inform the state's voters.

AP - Being dead since 1940 hasn't kept Idaho U.S. Sen. William Borah from being inserted squarely into 2008 presidential politics after Democratic candidate Barack Obama took issue with President Bush's borrowing of a quote from Borah.

AFP - The UN said on Thursday it had airlifted more than 250 civilian staff from Sudan's flashpoint town of Abyei, where thousands of Sudanese are believed to have fled clashes in the contested oil region.

AP - A man pleaded guilty in federal court Thursday to writing racially hateful letters and e-mails to black or mixed-race people, including Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter.

AP - The Senate Thursday night voted to nullify a Federal Communications Commission rule that allows media companies to own a newspaper and a television station in the same market.

AP - A California Supreme Court decision clearing the way for gay marriages in the state injects an element of uncertainty into a presidential race in which the Iraq war and the sputtering economy have largely overshadowed social issues.

AP - Barack Obama accused President Bush of "a false political attack" Thursday after Bush warned in Israel against appeasing terrorists — early salvos in a general election campaign that's already blazing even as the Democratic front-runner tries to sew up his party's nomination.

AP - The Tennessee Republican Party "welcomed" Michelle Obama's visit for a fundraiser Thursday night with an online video that takes the Democratic presidential front-runner's wife to task for a comment some considered unpatriotic.

AP - Republican John McCain declared for the first time Thursday he believes the Iraq war can be won by 2013, although he rejected suggestions that his talk of a timetable put him on the same side as Democrats clamoring for full-scale troop withdrawals.

AP - Perhaps no one took greater comfort in the Republican Party's third straight loss of a long-held House seat this week than Barack Obama, who says the results point to clear limits in the effectiveness of attack ads he expects this fall.