Former Sen. Jesse Helms, who built a career along the fault lines of racial politics and battled liberals, Communists and the occasional fellow Republican during 30 years in Congress, died Friday. He was 86.

President Bush invoked the memory of Thomas Jefferson Friday in welcoming new U.S. citizens at a naturalization ceremony, saying "I'll be proud to call you a fellow American."

Democrat Barack Obama struggled Thursday to explain how his upcoming trip to Iraq might refine, but not basically alter, his promise to quickly remove U.S. combat troops from the war.

Efforts to expand the campaign battlefield this year could, paradoxically, be the first step toward taming partisan gridlock in Washington.

John McCain has struggled to solidify lines of attack against Mr. Obama, Republican operatives say and some of his own advisers acknowledge.