Hillary and the 'hit job'

An Associated Press report: "Hillary Rodham Clinton, defending her husband's increasingly vocal role in her presidential effort, sidestepped questions about whether Bill Clinton's suggestion that Barack Obama had put a 'hit job' on him was language befitting a former president. 'We're in a very heated campaign, and people are coming out and saying all kinds of things,' Hillary Clinton said in an interview Wednesday. People?

And, if you can't wait, here at above right is preview of TIME's cover coming tomorrow. Jay Carney writes, “Now having won two important early contests, McCain finds himself burdened with the front-runner label for the second time in a month, the third time in the past year and the fourth time since the 2000 primaries ... Up to this point in McCain’s career as a presidential candidate, becoming the man to beat has meant, inexorably, that he was about to be beaten ... If McCain loses Florida, and the nomination, it will be because Republicans couldn’t overcome their doubts about him—and because McCain wasn’t willing to make it easy for them.”

McCain says, referring to potential Democratic presidential nominees, “I am confident we’d have a respectful debate with any of the three ... Why not? I’ve worked with them all. They’re all patriots.” Ken Duberstein, a former chief of staff for Ronald Reagan, tells TIME, “McCain has his flaws, but everyone is starting to recognize that he’s the most electable Republican out there.”