Campaign Insider

Radio commentator Rush Limbaugh spoke with Time's James Carney about the 2008 election. Look for the full interview at time.com/limbaugh

Q. Is there anything John McCain can do to convince you that he's acceptable? A. I don't think he should even try. He's got to be who he is. His job is not to be acceptable to a single person. I'm not sitting here demanding that. I don't have that sense of power.

Q. If McCain wins, how will it be having a Republican President you don't see eye-to-eye with? A. Here we're going to have a guy who has made a practice of getting things done by sitting down with Democrats. And so it looks like we're going to have a Democrat agenda regardless of who wins the presidency. I don't view myself as having to defend my President if he's in my party. That's not my job.

Q. What is it that the mainstream media don't understand about you and conservative talk radio? A. I don't think they understand why I do it. I treat it as a business. My definitions for success have nothing to do with who wins elections but, rather, Is the program growing audience-wise, are we attracting new sponsors? In terms of the content, I just come here and try to have fun every day. I don't say outrageous things I don't believe just to get people in a tizzy. I have the benefit of not having anybody telling me what I can't say.

SUPERDELEGATES

Yes, superdelegate votes could break a tie between Clinton and Obama, but some of the 796 party insiders are more coveted than others. Prominent free agents:

AL GORE An Obama nod from Bubba's Veep would be a tough blow to Clinton's campaign

NANCY PELOSI The Speaker of the House wields power and has influence over party leaders

JOHN EDWARDS Supporters from his campaign could push a candidate over the finish line

CHRIS REDFERN The Ohio Democratic Party chairman is from a key battleground state

BILL RICHARDSON The New Mexico governor and former candidate sways Latino votes

RAHM EMANUEL The Representative from Illinois is a longtime Democratic operator

BARBARA BOXER The California Senator has loyal fans and represents a powerful state

MIKE DOYLE The Pennsylvania lawmaker could influence the state's April primary

7 Ways for John McCain to Bolster His Conservative Credentials

1 Choose a well-known conservative as a running mate and announce the selection early

2 Personally build a few feet of border fence in Arizona

3 Publicly embrace Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas

4 Replace all the campaign-office chairs with Reaganesque three-legged stools

5 Go bow-hunting with Ted Nugent

6 Change the channel on the Straight Talk Express from MSNBC to Fox News

7 Another Reagan touch: more jelly beans

GOD-O-METER

The Great Faith-Off Barack Obama won South Carolina's most frequent churchgoers by 3 to 1 over Hillary Clinton. But she came back to capture white Evangelicals in Missouri's primary by a 17-point margin--even as Obama continued to sweep black churchgoers. Clinton has also dominated among Catholics. Quietly but steadily, the Clinton camp has built networks of religious supporters and reintroduced Clinton to them as someone who knows her way around a church picnic. And at the last Democratic debate, she slipped in a religious reference, criticizing immigration laws that would have "criminalized the Good Samaritan and Jesus Christ."

For daily God-o-Meter readings covering all the presidential candidates, visit beliefnet.com

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