If Hillary is going to make a race of this one, she's got a lot of ground to make up, according to the latest Public Policy Polling survey:

Obama 54 (-1 vs. 3/24 poll)
Clinton 36 (+2)

In the RCP Average of North Carolina, Obama holds a 12-point lead (49.8 to 37.8).

"We from the government and we're here to help!" Paulson unveils the administration's plan to overhaul the financial system.

A Michigan congressman offers the latest solution to the state's delegates.

Meanwhile, the "Dem elite" are looking at a solution to the whole mess in June.

Launching his "Service to Amerca" tour, McCain got slightly sidetracked today regarding Iraq.

Read McCain's "Service to America" speech here.

Texas two-step continues: Even though Clinton "won" the state, Obama now has officially more of Texas' delegates.

Not that we needed more confirmation, but the little girl who greeted Hillary on the Bosnian tarmac has come forward.

A mayor in Brazil wants to ban death.

Doesn't seem like good news coming out of NATO.

PA Gov. Ed Rendell, a Clinton supporter, says Fox News is the fairest of them all:

From Clinton:

Secretary Jackson's resignation ends a tenure at HUD marked by an indifference to Congressional oversight powers, cronyism, and corrupt contracting practices that have no place in our government. Yet while Secretary Jackson's resignation is appropriate, it does nothing to address the Bush Administration's wait-and-don't-see posture to our nation's housing crisis, which is threatening to drive our economy into a painful recession.

Now is the time for immediate action, not more half-measures and white papers. While I appreciate the Administration's willingness to acknowledge the need for more regulation of our financial markets, we cannot let a discussion about rearranging the regulatory deck chairs divert us from the fact that our housing and credit markets are in crisis, and are sinking deeper every day that we fail to take aggressive action.

That's why today I am outlining immediate steps we can take to shore up the housing and credit markets, restore confidence in our regulatory infrastructure, and keep millions of families in their homes. These include smart, near-term regulatory changes that are calibrated to the actual crisis we face. And they include aggressive actions to help restructure at-risk mortgages and keep millions of families in their homes.

From Obama:

Secretary Jackson's resignation amid a housing crisis and charges of cronyism serves as a stark reminder of what's at stake in this election. It's harder than ever for working families to achieve the American Dream, and that's why we need a president who will cut ties with the special interests so that we can implement a plan that provides real relief to homeowners and prevents the lobbyists from writing the laws that regulate them. I've proposed a plan to create a new FHA Housing Security Program, create a new mortgage interest tax credit, fight mortgage fraud, and create a $10 billion foreclosure prevention fund. And on my first day in office, I'll introduce the most sweeping ethics reform in history, keeping industry insiders out of the regulation process and taking away the tools that the special interests use to curry favor. After nearly eight years of failed policies, rampant favoritism, and inaction in the face of crisis, that's the kind of leadership that America needs.

At the top of the week, speculation continues to surge around the state of the Clinton campaign. The Politico leads with a story on the increasingly "cash-strapped" Hillary campaign, which has reportedly "been putting off paying hundreds of bills for months." Meanwhile, the UK Telegraph speculates that the gender card is back in play:

Faced with a growing chorus to abandon the uphill battle against Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination, Hillary Clinton is falling back on what she sees as her trump card - her gender.

At other perilous junctures like the eve of the New Hampshire primary and the eve of Super Tuesday, the former First Lady highlighted her femininity during televised tearful moments. Now she is portraying the calls for her to quit as male chauvinism.

In comments leaked to the New York Times, Mrs Clinton is said to have told aides that she would not be "bullied out" of the White House race and in a conversation with two allies compared her plight to "big boys" trying to bully a woman.

This weekend, Clinton told the Washington Post she'd fare better than Obama against John McCain. "I have a better chance. You cannot as a Democrat win the White House without a very big women's vote. What I believe is that women will turn out for me."

With the latest Gallup poll numbers showing Obama in a ten-point lead, Clinton may be hoping for those women she's counting on to step things up a bit...

Part of McCain's "Service to America" week:

New Rasmussen polls in Michigan, New Jersey and Washington show McCain doing quite well. In NJ and MI, which have both voted Democratic in the last four presidential elections, McCain leads both Dems, though by statistically insignificant margins. Also, McCain leads Clinton in WA, which hasn't voted GOP since 1984.

Michigan
Clinton 42 - McCain 45
Obama 42 - McCain 43

New Jersey
Clinton 42 - McCain 45
Obama 45 - McCain 46

Washington
Clinton 43 - McCain 46
Obama 48 - McCain 43

In a new Rasmussen general election poll in Virginia (March 27, 500 LV), McCain's lead against both Obama and Clinton has doubled, after leading Obama by 5 points and Clinton by 10 points last month. The state could become a battleground in the general, as recent elections have given Democrats hope that Virginia could give its electoral votes to a Dem for the first time since 1964.

McCain 58 - Clinton 36
McCain 52 - Obama 41

In the wake of a horrible bowling performance Saturday night in Altoona, Pa., Obama's weekend got a lot better last night when news broke that Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar would endorse him.

Monday got even better, as the Wall Street Journal reports that North Carolina's seven Democratic House members will endorse Obama as a group sometime before the state's May 6 primary.

The baseball season got off to a great start last night (are we counting the games in Japan?), as the Washington Nationals' Ryan Zimmerman smacked a walk-off home run with two outs in the bottom of the 9th inning to lead the team to a 3-2 victory over the Atlanta Braves in the first ever regular season game at Nationals Park.

On hand was President Bush, who threw out the first pitch, which announcer Joe Morgan called "high heat." Bush was invited into ESPN's broadcast booth to speak with Morgan and Jon Miller, and ended up calling the first-ever home run at the new stadium, hit by the Braves' Chipper Jones.

Bush looked quite at home in the booth. The only time politics came up was when Miller mentioned Bush's 2004 State of the Union speech, in which he called on baseball to rid itself of steroids.

For more on this and the NCAA Tournament, check out RealClearSports.

With the coming season ahead of us, on this day in 1995 the longest strike in major league history ends. On to today's top stories:

"Clinton, Obama debate electoral-map strategy" (Christina Bellantoni, Washington Times) Clinton's argument is that she can take key battleground states like Ohio; Obama's argument is that he can put GOP strongholds like the South in play. One strategy is focused on the traditional way of winning the White House; the other on shaking up the old electoral map.

"McCain Faces Test in Wooing Elite Donors" (Michael Luo and Griff Palmer, New York Times) Part of John McCain's strategy for his bio tour this week is to introduce himself to voters before Democrats have a chance to define him. The other part is to get big-money donors excited for the coming battle.

"Driving Hard for Keystone Prize" (Kris Maher and Timothy Aeppel, Wall Street Journal) Pennsylvania is Clinton country to be sure, but there are sections where Obama should do well. Get to know the state's demographic breakdown.

"Obama, McCain Forged Fleeting Alliance" (Paul Kane, Washington Post) Wonderful anecdote on the first (and only) time Obama and McCain worked together in the Senate. Obama went to McCain to express his interest in forging an ethics bill and McCain accepted his support. Within a week, the collaboration was dead.

"To Working Class, Clinton Talks the Talk" (Jim Tankersley, Chicago Tribune) Apparently there are readability scales, which measure the education level needed to understand a piece of writing (or a speech), and Clinton scores on average two grades beneath Obama. Is that why she's winning the working class?

"McCain Polls Well Amid War, Economic Worries" (Associated Press) And it's driving the Democrats bananas. As always, it's too early to put much faith in these early polls, except to say that McCain's numbers show that he's probably doing the best a Republican candidate could do.

"Superdelegates: A Guide to the Undecided" (Avi Zenilman, The Politico) Of the 794 Democratic superdelegates, more than 460 are spoken for. That leaves about 250 or so to be fought over. Reporter Zenilman takes us through what might help that group decide.

"Gore Launches Ambitious Advocacy Campaign on Climate" (Juliet Eilperin, Washington Post) There's been a lot of talk of Al Gore riding to the rescue -- whether as a super-duper delegate who can moderate the endgame or as a candidate himself. So we might as well figure out what Gore is doing these days.

Get today's other election stories at RCP's Politics and Election page.