In the Headlines

"Internal Politics Heat Up at McCain Campaign" (Adam Nagourney, New York Times) - Senator John McCain's campaigns have long been defined by internal squabbling and power plays, zigzagging lines of command and a penchant by the candidate for consulting with former advisers without alerting current ones, always a recipe for disquiet.

"Adding up the cost of Obama's agenda" (Peter Nicholas, Los Angeles Times) - But if he wins the presidency, Obama will be hard-pressed to keep his blueprint intact. A variety of budget analysts are skeptical that the Democrat's agenda could survive in the face of large federal budget deficits and the difficulty of making good on his plan to raise new revenue by closing tax loopholes, ending the Iraq war and cutting spending that is deemed low-priority.

"McCain touts plan to create jobs, help workers" (Charles Babington, AP) - Republican presidential candidate John McCain acknowledged the steep drop in U.S. jobs and said he would help the economy by cutting taxes, encouraging free trade, building nuclear power plants and launching other initiatives.

"Webb Takes His Name Off List of Possible Obama Choices" (Monica Langley, Wall Street Journal) - Virginia Democratic Sen. Jim Webb took himself out of consideration as a vice-presidential candidate amid growing speculation that he was on Sen. Barack Obama's short list of possible running mates.

On the Morning Shows

Fox and Friends - John McCain, on Bill Clinton's POW comments: "I don't know where he gets his expertise. I don't know how to respond to that except to say that some of the greatest moments of my life I had the great honor of serving in the company of heroes."

On the campaign shakeup: "Rick Davis is still our campaign manager, Steve [Schmidt] has taken on more responsibilities...[The critics] are the same people who said our campaign was dead several times."

On Obama's perceived flip-flops: "I think there's definitely been shifts in position -- one of them has been on Iraq."

Sen. Claire McCaskill, possible VP candidate, on whether Obama has changed his Iraq policy: "No, he has not. ... Barack Obama's mindset is we must get out. We must get out as carefully and as quickly as we possibly can."

Morning Joe - David Axelrod, on Obama's Iraq position: "His position has been the say throughout, that we have to remove combat troops from Iraq. ... He believes, based on the advice that he has gotten from experts in the area, that could be done in one or two brigades a month.... Sixteen months is the goal and he believes that is a reasonable goal.

"But obviously any president is going to listen to the commanders on the ground and look at what the conditions are at the time."

(Greg Bobrinskoy contributed to the Morning Report.)