The location of Sen. Barack Obama’s just-opened headquarters here in Wayne, W.V., says a lot about the challenges facing both the candidate and this Mountaineer community as voters prepare to vote in Tuesday’s primary.

The makeshift Barack Obama campaign office is across from the courthouse and next to a thrift shop. A hand-drawn sign covers a torn awning over its door, indicating that the storefront probably used to be a restaurant.

While Obama is ahead nationally in delegates and the popular vote, and more than a few pundits have said the Democratic race is game over, Sen. Hillary Clinton has an enormous lead in West Virginia polls thus far.

Read on for USA Today’s coverage of Obama’s uphill climb …

Check out this photo Barack Obama pounding a brew at the Raleigh Times Bar in Raleigh, N.C., on Tuesday, the day of the North Carolina primary.

He may not be known as the working man’s candidate, but the Illinois Senator seemed right at home on this day, enjoying a Pabst Blue Ribbon with locals.

Pabst! The sacrifices this man makes for America. If you aren’t firmly in Barack Obama’s camp already, this should give you the final push …

To further show what a generous guy he is, on top of an inspirational leader, Obama tipped $18 on the $2 draft. Maybe all he had were $20s?

SIDE NOTE: It’s good to see Pabst still costs a fair $2 in some establishments. It does the job, but let’s face it, it’s still Pabst. Charging $3.50 for a Blue Ribbon like places do in the Northeast is just criminal.

One of our favorite images from last night’s election coverage (perhaps the only decent one, really) came not from Pennsylvania, but from Evansville, Indiana.

Despite a tough loss in the Pennsylvania primary, there was a positive feeling in the air as Sen. Barack Obama prepared to speak to an overflow crowd of supporters.

Seven Obama rally-goers in particular got caught up in the moment and just couldn’t contain their excitement … at being from Indiana!

Are they showing their support for their beloved college and pro basketball teams, both of which suffered through difficult seasons? Or for a certain adventurous and iconic film archaeologist nicknamed after their state? We may never know.

Let’s just hope they show up to vote May 6.

No matter what you think of her politically or personally, there’s no doubt that former First Lady and current Sen. Hillary Clinton is expressive.

How expressive? We’re all familiar with her by now, but just for fun, here’s a gallery of some of her best (worst) moments we found online …

The more we follow politics, and the presidential race in particular, the more we wonder why anyone wants the job. These people are beyond tough.

After all, there are about 10 million Hillary Clinton photos to choose from if you want to scour them. If the same were true of you, that would probably make for some pretty ridiculous collages as well. But you are not running for office.

Even if you’re a successful politician, millions are laughing at you.

If your approval rating is in the low 30s like George W. Bush, people just want you to go away and never be heard from again (or tried for high crimes if you are a resident of Vermont). Even the quotes cease to be funny after awhile.

How can we be expected to pass up the chance to post a George W. Bush photo like this, no matter how irrelevant it might be to the topics of the day?

Below, the President of the United States cozies up to a like-minded creature during an Easter event on the White House lawn. Some deep policy discussions ensued…

  [insert your own George W. Bush quote / punchline here]

In a millisecond, Comedy Central’s hilarious Stephen Colbert of The Colbert Report pretty much summed up how most of us feel about the actions of the outgoing, disgraced Governor of New York State, Eliot Spitzer.

Stephen Colbert’s reaction to the sex scandal - in which Spitzer was outed after paying for trysts with high-priced prostitute Ashley Dupre, a.k.a. Kristen …

Eliot Spitzer certainly made many people cringe this week.

On a serious note, and somewhat interestingly, Eliot Spitzer himself appeared on The Colbert Report February 12, the night he booked Ashley Alexandra Dupre for $4,300 and the day before federal investigators nailed the prostitution ring.

The Governor, who is resigning the office as of Monday, has been married to Silda Spitzer for over two decades and has three teenage daughters.

If you thought George W. Bush’s embrace of Cindy McCain at the White House had this award wrapped up, we wouldn’t blame you… but think again!

Half a world away, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak went in for the kill as he greeted Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in Jerusalem Wednesday.

Politics sure is full of these moments, which certainly makes us laugh - and think that an international handshake-only policy would be passed pretty easily…

And we thought Condi was uncomfortable with foreign affairs already!

Okay, maybe that’s a bit extreme. Maybe.

There’s no escaping that George W. Bush has abysmal job performance numbers and an uneasy relationship (at best) with John and Cindy McCain.

With 1,226 delegates under his belt - more than enough for the nomination - John McCain is no longer the GOP nominee-in-waiting, but the nominee.

Receiving the endorsement of a sitting president is a big deal, but given the history and the current commander-in-chief’s plummeting popularity, we’re sure today’s formal announcement at the White House was a bit awkward for all…

Cindy McCain: Embraced by a man with 32.2 percent approval rating!

Herein lies the problem for John McCain: While conservatives remain uneasy about his candidacy, and those conservatives (apparently) still revere George W., just 24 percent of the U.S. feels the country is headed in the right direction.

How can the Maverick appeal to independents while appearing with George W. Bush and giving a speech last night that was, as Democratic strategist Paul Belaga put it, “an eloquent but not very energetic defense of the status quo.”

It’s a fine line. John McCain has no choice but to walk it, which leaves us confident about the chances for either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama.

He knows it, too. When he starts looking at potential Vice Presidential candidates, as he says he will soon, expect McCain to steer clear of camp W.

Having posted another win and inched a bit closer to officially securing the GOP nomination last night, Republican presidential hopeful John McCain hugged his wife, Cindy McCain, during a rally in Appleton, Wisconsin.

The McCains do make a sweet couple, but all John and Cindy McCain photos tell us that much. What we love about this particular photo is the sign held by the young McCain (and Green Bay Packers) fan in the background…

Wonder how Cindy McCain feels about Brett Favre on the ticket …

We’ve already speculated as to some of the names on a McCain V.P. short list, but apparently we left off legendary NFL star Brett Favre. At least in Wisconsin, a McCain-Favre ticket would probably deliver for the GOP.

This Associated Press picture could be interpreted as unexceptional in some ways, yet quite symbolic in others. Here’s Barack Obama addressing an audience at the Jefferson-Jackson dinner in Virginia last Saturday…

Your standard speech photo… until you look at the background.

Just a few of the possible allusions here …

1. A new candidate emerging out the front in the race?
2. A powerful political force still lurking?
3. The future in focus, the past blurred?
4. Progressive versus sedentary?

We can’t say if any or all were intended, but it’s always interesting to take a longer look at political journalism - especially in a historic race.