MSNBC Takes Incendiary Hosts From Anchor Seat  —  MSNBC tried a bold experiment this year by putting two politically incendiary hosts, Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews, in the anchor chair to lead the cable news channel's coverage of the election.  —  That experiment appears to be over.

Palin Makes Her First Gaffe  —  Gov. Sarah Palin made her first potentially major gaffe during her time on the national scene while discussing the developments of the perilous housing market this past weekend.  —  Speaking before voters in Colorado Springs, the Republican vice presidential nominee claimed …

POST ENDORSES JOHN MCCAIN  —  THE Post today enthusiastically urges the election of Sen. John S. McCain as the 44th president of the United States.  —  McCain's lifelong record of service to America, his battle-tested courage, unshakeable devotion to principle and clear grasp of the dangers …

Palin in Debate  —  I just finished watching a video on C-Span's website of the August, 2006 Republican debate in the Alaska governor's race.  It pitted Frank Murkowski, the then-governor of the state and veteran of 22 years in the U.S. Senate, against Republican politician John Binkley and Wasilla mayor Sarah Palin.

Original Mavericks  —  Marc Ambinder writes about John McCain's latest ad: … But couldn't it have something to do with the way the campaign press reports news?  Back in 2000, the exit polls showed that among the 24 percent of the electorate who said it was very important to them to select an …

MTV piles on the Palin family; host Russell Brand promotes Obama, bashes America, Bush, and Christians; viewer backlash; transcript added  —  Scroll down for updates...transcript added...  Obama's Viacom thugs strike.  —  Reader M.G. writes that the MTV Awards show was the latest venue for vicious Palin family-bashing:

Ms. Palin's Pipeline  —  PEOPLE ARE still buzzing about Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin's acceptance speech.  But while her style has been minutely analyzed, very little commentary has focused on one of the few substantive claims she made about her brief tenure as governor of Alaska …

Rice Offers Less-Than-Hearty Palin Endorsement  —  ABC News' Jonathan Karl Reports: In a weekend interview, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice passed up an opportunity to defend Sarah Palin from allegations that she does not have the foreign policy experience to be vice president.

No “Cat Fights”  —  I have been asked repeatedly over the last several days to respond to the idea that Hillary Clinton will soon be dispatched by the Obama campaign to “take Palin on.”  —  The questions are fair, but what undergirds them is an obsession in our popular culture with the …

Why Did Violence Plummet?  It Wasn't Just the Surge.  —  Throughout the summer of 2007, as the troop surge in Iraq reached full strength, Gen. David H. Petraeus kept waiting for the tide to turn.  By summer's end, the U.S. commander in Iraq got his wish.  The high of 1,550 attacks …

SLOW SLIDE INTO OBLIVION  —  I spent most of the day today traveling and then giving a talk up at Union College a few hours north of New York City.  So I was offline most of the day.  And though I heard about Charlie Gibson bagging the first interview with Sarah Palin, I was eager to get home and read the details.

CNN Poll: Race dead even  —  WASHINGTON (CNN) — A new national poll taken entirely after the end of the Republican convention suggests the race for the White House between John McCain and Barack Obama is dead even.  —  A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation Poll out Monday afternoon …

A Heartbeat Away  —  “We're not running against Governor Palin.”  —  David Axelrod, the Obama campaign's chief strategist, on “Fox News Sunday,” Sept. 7, 2008.  —  Actually, the Obama campaign is running (in part) against Sarah Palin.  Her name will appear with John McCain's on the ballot.