A round-up of this morning's must-read stories.

OBAMA PRESSED IN PA. DEBATE
(Anne E. Kornblut and Dan Balz, Washington Post)
In their first head-to-head encounter in nearly two months, Obama (Ill.) and his opponent for the Democratic nomination, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.), sparred over gaffes, missteps and past statements that could leave them vulnerable in the general election against Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), the presumptive Republican nominee. But it was Obama, now his party's front-runner, who was pressed most persistently by moderators Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos of ABC News to answer questions that have dominated the Democratic race in the weeks since the last major contests, held March 4 in Texas and Ohio. The encounter, particularly in the early stages, seemed more like a grilling of Obama on a Sunday-morning talk show than a debate between the two candidates. Obama fielded most of the questions calmly, although at times he appeared to choose his words with extreme care as he faced perhaps the toughest series of questions he has encountered since taking the lead in delegates in the nomination battle.

MORE: Clinton Uses Sharp Attacks in Tense Debate (Adam Nagourney and Jeff Zeleny, New York Times)
The result was arguably one of Mr. Obama’s weakest debate performances... The political implications of his performance remained unclear. As Mrs. Clinton was again reminded by a poll Wednesday in The Washington Post, there are risks to going on the attack as she has over the past six weeks: She is viewed unfavorably by an increasingly large number of voters. Mrs. Clinton can afford nothing short of a strong victory in Pennsylvania’s primary on Tuesday as she looks for a rationale to proceed with her candidacy and stir doubts about Mr. Obama’s ability to appeal to white, blue-collar voters. But Mrs. Clinton’s audience in attacking Mr. Obama and his electability was not just voters here, but also the unaligned Democratic superdelegates — elected officials and party leaders — whose choices are going to determine who wins the nomination.

EVEN MORE: Obama Kept on Defensive During Debate (Carrie Budoff Brown, Politico)
The questions essentially constituted the Republican case against Obama in a general election. He appeared tense, and dispensed with the questions in way that was unlikely to inflict any more damage as he heads into next week's voting. But the tone of the questioning also reflected that Obama has yet to put the controversies that have dogged him over the past few weeks to rest. Clinton, who holds a modest lead in most Pennsylvania polls, did not seem to emerge with a game-changing performance, but the intensity of the questioning of Obama could aid her long-term goal of casting doubt among superdelegates about his candidacy.

CLINTON WINS, BUT BARELY
(John Dickerson, Slate)
I will now adjust my view of Obama's rough start to account for the personal weather system under which he apparently operates. Many things that looked like they would punish him during this campaign have not. Furthermore, it appears that he has made it through the initial aftermath of his ungainly remarks about Pennsylvania small-town folk without a slip in the polls. There was nothing tonight that had the potential to wound like those remarks did, so Obama may yet not be damaged as much as a normal candidate ought. On the other hand, the sheer number of questions may make the next round of primary voters wonder about Obama's foundation. Or they might wonder how he could, with a straight face, decry Hillary Clinton for taking snippets of his remarks out of context and blowing them up, when he has done the same so expertly and so frequently with John McCain's claim about America's 100-year commitment to Iraq.

ABOVE THE FRAY
(Joe Klein, Time)
When asked directly by Chris Matthews if élitism would be an issue in the general election, McCain said no. This may well be strategy: the candidate takes the high road while Schmidt lands the body blows. But McCain has laid down some pretty clear markers that he sees this election in much the same way that Obama (and Hillary Clinton) does. He wants to have a substantive debate about the war, he believes that climate change is a major issue, and he has begun to acknowledge the economic pain visited upon manufacturing workers in places like Michigan and Ohio. If he persists in seeing the election this way and running on his convictions, he will be doing the Democrats — and the nation — a great favor. I suspect that he will. It's McCain's way. He sees the tawdry ceremonies of politics — the spin and hucksterism — as unworthy... The problem for McCain, and the opportunity for Democrats, is that his positions are either unpopular or sketchy. The problem for Democrats is that McCain has the potential to steal, or take the edge off, some of their favorite issues by offering more moderate-seeming, if sometimes totally inadequate, answers.

BILL CLINTON HAPPILY TROOPING THROUGH HINTERLAND
(Timothy McNulty, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
The former president has been New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's biggest weapon in the towns between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, making almost 70 public appearances in spots around what's called the Pennsylvania "T" since early March. While the campaign has employed the strategy for months -- partially to wring out from every state as many delegates as possible -- it may be paying new dividends in Pennsylvania, thanks to Sen. Barack Obama's comments last week that some small-town residents were "bitter" and therefore "cling" to religion and guns while voting against their own interests.

OBAMA REASSURES JEWISH LEADERS ON HAMAS, WRIGHT
(Beth Fouhy, Associated Press)
Sen. Barack Obama on Wednesday criticized former President Carter for meeting with leaders of the Islamic terrorist group Hamas as he tried to reassure Jewish voters that his candidacy isn't a threat to them or U.S. support for Israel. The Democratic presidential candidate's comments to a group of Jewish leaders were his first on Carter's controversial meeting scheduled this week in Egypt.The Illinois senator has been working to reassure Jewish voters nervous about his candidacy after publicity about anti-Israel sentiments expressed by his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and criticism from Hillary Rodham Clinton during a February debate that he hadn't immediately rejected an endorsement from black Muslim leader Louis Farrakhan. Obama responded that he already denounced Farrakhan, but would reject his support as well.

BITTER HASN'T BITTEN SO FAR IN N.C.
(Rob Christensen, Raleigh News and Observer)
Sen. Barack Obama makes his first foray into Eastern North Carolina today, hoping to shore up support among rural and small-town voters. But controversy over remarks he made last week could distract those very people. The campaign of his opponent, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who also will be in North Carolina this week, has portrayed Obama's remarks as elitist and condescending. But polling and interviews at a party rally Tuesday night in Rocky Mount showed little apparent damage to Obama so far in North Carolina's May 6 Democratic presidential primary campaign.