OBAMA OPENS LEAD IN NEW JERSEY, WISCONSIN

Senator Obama has opened up significant leads in two potentially key states, New Jersey and Wisconsin, new polls show. The presumptive Democratic nominee led Senator McCain in New Jersey by six points, 45% to 39%, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released yesterday. In the Badger State, Mr. Obama leads Mr. McCain by 13 points, 50% to 37%, according to a survey of registered voters by the University of Wisconsin. Vice President Gore and Senator Kerry defeated President Bush in the state by razor-thin margins in the last two elections, and the poll suggests Mr. Obama is beginning the general election on much more stable footing there. National polls this week have shown the Illinois senator with about a six-point edge over Mr. McCain, reflecting at least part of an expected bump from his clinching the Democratic nomination at the beginning of the month.

OBAMA UNVEILS WEB SITE TO FIGHT SMEAR CAMPAIGN

In an unusual move, Senator Obama’s campaign has created a new Web site designed explicitly to shoot down speculation about his wife and his background that have dogged his candidacy for months. The site, FightTheSmears.com, outlines various rumors and attempts to set the record straight by encouraging viewers to forward the campaign’s explanation on to friends and colleagues. The top “smear” named on the site is the purported existence of a video of Michelle Obama using the term “whitey” during an appearance at their former church in Chicago. There is no evidence the video exists, but right-wing commentators have speculated about it for weeks. The site also addresses the false rumor that Mr. Obama is a Muslim and that he does not put his hand over his heart during the Pledge of Allegiance. “The Obama campaign isn’t going to let dishonest smears spread across the Internet unanswered,” a spokesman, Tommy Vietor, said. “Whenever challenged with these lies, we will aggressively push back with the truth and help our supporters debunk the false rumors floating around the Internet.”

REZKO CITES PRESSURE TO IMPLICATE OBAMA

A former fund-raiser for Senator Obama convicted earlier this month on corruption charges is accusing federal prosecutors of pressuring him to implicate Mr. Obama. The fund-raiser, Antoin Rezko, wrote in an undated letter to the judge presiding over his trial that the prosecution was “overzealous” in seeking damaging information about the Illinois senator and the state’s governor, Rod Blagojevich. “They are pressuring me to tell them the ‘wrong’ things that I supposedly know about Gov. Blagojevich and Sen. Obama,” Rezko wrote in the letter, which was obtained and published by Politico. “I have never been party to any wrongdoing that involved the governor or the senator. I will never fabricate lies about anyone else for selfish purposes. I will take what comes my way, but I will never hurt innocent people.” Rezko, a Chicago developer, was found guilty of 16 counts of corruption, fraud, and money laundering. Mr. Obama was not accused of any wrongdoing, although his name came up several times during the trial. Republicans have sought to link Mr. Obama and Rezko, and the presumptive Democratic nominee has said he regrets entering into a land deal with him after his name surfaced in a corruption scandal. A spokesman for the prosecution declined comment to Politico.

BERLUSCONI PICKS MCCAIN, FOR HIS AGE

Senator McCain’s age — he is 71 — may be a liability in America, but it has won him at least one supporter abroad: Prime Minister Berlusconi of Italy. In an appearance with President Bush in Rome, he expressed his “personal preference” for the presumptive Republican nominee, he said, “for a very selfish reason, and that is that I would no longer be the oldest person at the upcoming G8, because McCain is a month older than me.”

GADHAFI CRITICIZES OBAMA OVER RACE

The Libyan leader, Muammar Gadhafi, waded into the American presidential race yesterday, attacking Senator Obama in racially charged terms. “We fear that Obama will feel that, because he is black with an inferiority complex, this will make him behave worse than the whites,” he told a rally at a former American military base near Tripoli, Reuters reported. “This will be a tragedy,” he added. “We tell him to be proud of himself as a black and feel that all Africa is behind him because if he sticks to this inferiority complex he will have a worse foreign policy than the whites had in the past.” The criticism from the rogue leader may not be unwelcome for Mr. Obama, as Republicans have seized on praise of the presumptive Democratic nominee from terrorist groups such as Hamas.