75,000 ATTEND OBAMA RALLY IN PORTLAND  —  From NBC's Mark Hudspeth  —  Per the Obama campaign, 75,000 people (60,000 in the gates and 15,000 outside of them) turned out in Portland to hear Obama speak there this afternoon — making it the largest Obama crowd to date.

McCain Exceptionalism  —  Last Tuesday, Republicans lost another Congressional seat in a special election — their third such defeat in two months.  On Wednesday I received an acerbic e-mail message from a disgusted young G.O.P. loyalist: “I just have to say that Republicans are a dumb party that chooses stupid candidates.

The Next American Frontier  —  The entire world seems to be heading toward points of inflection.  The developing world is embarking on the digital age.  The developed world is entering the Internet era.  And the United States, once again at the vanguard, is on the verge of becoming the world's first Entrepreneurial Nation.

Feud Fuels Bill O'Reilly's Blasts at GE  —  Bill O'Reilly, the Fox News star, is mounting an extraordinary televised assault on the chief executive of General Electric, calling him a “pinhead” and a “despicable human being” who bears responsibility for the deaths of American soldiers in Iraq.

Gender Issue Lives On as Clinton's Hopes Dim  —  With each passing day, it seems a little less likely that the next president of the United States will wear a skirt — or a cheerful, no-nonsense pantsuit.  —  Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton is now in what most agree are the waning days …

Obama And Clinton's California Kumbaya  —  For those on the far right hoping for blood in the streets of Denver, Sunday's meeting of the California delegation to the Democatic National Convention was very bad news.  Because of its size, California is sending even more Hillary Clinton delegates …

As Clinton chances wane, old slights come due  —  Some prominent Democrats recall past grievances  —  WASHINGTON - When Democratic superdelegate Jim Cooper, a Tennessee congressman, pondered the choice between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, his thoughts wandered back to 1993.

The freedom to say ‘no’  —  Why aren't there more women in science and engineering?  Controversial new research suggests: They just aren't interested.  —  WHEN IT COMES to the huge and persistent gender gap in science and technology jobs, the finger of blame has pointed in many directions …

Keeping Secrets: In Presidential Memo, A New Designation for Classifying Information  —  Sometime in the next few years, if a memorandum signed by President Bush this month ever goes into effect, one government official talking to another about information on terrorists will have to begin by saying …

Bring On the Foreign Policy Debate  —  President Bush's speech to Israel's Knesset, where he equated “negotiat[ing] with the terrorists and radicals” to “the false comfort of appeasement,” drew harsh criticism from Barack Obama and other Democratic leaders.  They apparently thought the president …