OBAMA REJECTS VICE PRESIDENTIAL TALK

Senator Obama is rejecting as presumptuous suggestions from Senator Clinton and her allies that he might serve as her vice presidential candidate. “With all due respect, I’ve won twice as many states as Senator Clinton. I’ve won more of the popular vote than Senator Clinton. I have more delegates than Senator Clinton. So, I don’t know how somebody who’s in second place is offering the vice presidency to the person who’s in first place,” Mr. Obama said while campaigning in Columbus, Miss. “I want everybody to be absolutely clear. I’m not running for vice president. I’m running for president of the United States of America. I’m running to be commander in chief.” The Illinois senator also said the veep talk was inconsistent with the Clinton campaign’s argument that he lacks the national security experience needed to be president. “President Bill Clinton, back in 1992, when he was being asked about his selection for vice president, he said, ‘The only criteria, the most important criteria for vice president, is that that person is ready, if I fell out in the first week, that he or she would be ready to be the commander-in-chief,'” Mr. Obama said. “I don’t understand. If I’m not ready, how is it that you think I should be such a great vice president?” In a conference call with reporters prior to Mr. Obama’s comments yesterday, Mrs. Clinton’s chief spokesman, Howard Wolfson, stood by the campaign’s arguments that Mr. Obama’s national security credentials are lacking. “Senator Obama has not passed the commander in chief test,” Mr. Wolfson said, according to the Washington Post. He said Mrs. Clinton had not ruled out picking Mr. Obama as vice president.

CLINTON SENDS ‘BEST WISHES’ TO SPITZER

Senator Clinton expressed her “best wishes” for Governor Spitzer and his family yesterday but she declined to comment on whether the suddenly embattled New York leader should step down. “I don’t have any comment on that, but I obviously am sending, you know, my best wishes and thoughts to the governor and to his family,” she said while campaigning in Pennsylvania. She dodged a question about whether Mr. Spitzer could survive the allegations tying him to a prostitution ring, NBC News reported. “Let’s wait and see what comes out over the next days, but right now I don’t have any comment, and I think it’s appropriate just to wish his family well, and we’ll wait and see how things develop,” she said. Mr. Spitzer has endorsed Mrs. Clinton and is currently a superdelegate in her corner. But he has done very little campaigning for her, and his proposal last year to give driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants put her in a tricky political position.

JUDGE: INDEPENDENT SPENDING RULES DON’T VIOLATE CONSTITUTION

Americans who make so-called independent expenditures on advertisements for or against federal candidates can be required to file prompt reports on how much was spent and to include disclaimers indicating who took out the ads, a federal judge in California ruled Thursday. Judge Dale Fischer called any infringement on First Amendment rights “minimal and reasonable to keep the electorate fully informed about the source of campaign funds and to deter or expose corruption.”

The ruling came in a Federal Election Commission lawsuit against the owner of an outdoor advertising company, Stephen Adams, who paid for 435 billboards supporting President Bush in 2004. The FEC is suing Mr. Adams on the grounds that the disclaimers were incomplete and that he waited six weeks to file a report that was due 48 hours after the expenditure.

McCAIN TO VISIT ISRAEL, ENGLAND, FRANCE

The presumptive Republican nominee for president, Senator McCain of Arizona, will travel to Jerusalem, London, and Paris next week, his office announced yesterday. He’ll be flanked by two of his supporters: senators Lieberman of Connecticut and Graham of South Carolina.

SUPERDELEGATE WATCH

Senator Obama has won over two more superdelegates, Joyce Brayboy of North Carolina and Everett Sanders of Mississippi. The support of Ms. Brayboy was reported yesterday on the Web site of the Raleigh News & Observer. Mr. Sanders’s decision was announced by the Obama campaign.