AP - Barack Obama is criticizing Republican rival John McCain and President Bush for “dishonest and divisive” attacks in hinting that the Democratic presidential candidate would appease terrorists.

AP - Democrats accused Sen. John McCain Friday of hypocrisy on the question of whether the United States should negotiate with terrorists and dictators, saying the certain Republican nominee had previously been willing to negotiate with the militant Palestinian group Hamas.

AP - John McCain visited a gun shop Friday — but bought just a fishing scale — during the first stop in a day of courtship of the National Rifle Association and Second Amendment devotees.

AP - Michigan and Florida alone can’t save Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign.

Politico - With her deep party ties, New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton was supposed to own the superdelegate primary.

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.

AP - Democrats say McCain was willing to negotiate with Hamas … After GOP stumbles in the South, Obama warns Republicans about critical ads … Democratic Party panel members show little interest in Clinton’s call to seat disputed delegates … Obama picks up endorsements from former Edwards delegate, California congressman

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 - 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 - 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.

Reuters - Presumptive Republican presidential candidate John McCain secured millions in federal funds for a land acquisition program that provided a windfall for an Arizona developer whose executives were major campaign donors, according to a USA Today report.

AP - Barack Obama collected the support of seven of John Edwards’ Democratic convention delegates on Thursday, then gained the backing of four superdelegates and a large labor union as he marched steadily toward the party’s presidential nomination.

AP - Hillary Rodham Clinton scolded John McCain Thursday for opposing the farm bill, attempting to maintain the sense that she is already competing against the certain Republican presidential nominee even as her chances of winning the Democratic nomination dim.

AP - The union tide is turning toward Democratic presidential front-runner Barack Obama, but cracks are showing inside the labor movement as its leaders grapple with internal and external strife as the nomination race drags on.

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 - The way Sohale Siddiqi remembers it, he and his old roommate were walking his pug Charlie on Broadway when a large, scary bum approached them, stomping on the ground near the dog’s head.

AP - This could be the campaign of loudmouth preacher problems, and not only for Barack Obama. While The Rev. Jeremiah Wright is poster pastor for the type, Republican John McCain’s right-wing ecclesiastical stable has a record of ranting, too.