EXCERPTS: Charlie Gibson Interviews Sarah Palin  —  Republican VP Candidate Speaks with ABC News' Charlie Gibson in Exclusive Interview … GIBSON: Governor, let me start by asking you a question that I asked John McCain about you, and it is really the central question.

LIKE I SAID, FOUR MORE YEARS OF BUSH WOULD BE VASTLY PREFERABLE  —  Wow, going to war with Russia might be necessary if Russia invades another one of the former states of the Soviet Union.  So says Sarah Palin.  War with Russia over Armenia?  If Russia and Georgia go at it again?

McCain on Palin  —  A tough interview with a Maine reporter yesterday, in which McCain speaks on Palin's national security experience.  Uncharacteristically, he's much more at home on the domestic policy side.  —  At one point, he says that Palin “was right” on Russia and on Iran.

Critics: Under Palin, Wasilla charged rape victims for exam  —  Two state leaders lashed out at the public record of Gov. Sarah Palin on Wednesday as witnesses in a new “Alaska Mythbusters” forum coordinated by supporters of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.

Palin's experience OK: Illinois's Dem guv  —  Gov. Rod Blagojevich.  Chicago Tribune photo by Michael Tercha.)  —  by Rick Pearson  —  Illinois' Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich admits he can't field dress a moose and his hunting targets tend to be more along the lines of state legislators in his own party who don't trust him.

What's the Matter with Michigan?  —  Why Obama is faltering in a state that should go blue.  —  Democrats have grown accustomed to winning Michigan by relatively comfortable margins.  Bill Clinton flipped the state in 1992, bringing home the Reagan Democrats and giving the party its first win in the state since 1968.

Sarah Palin's Myth of America  —  Sarah Palin has arrived in our midst with the force of a rocket-propelled grenade.  She has boosted John McCain's candidacy and overwhelmed the presidential process in a way that no vice-presidential pick has since Thomas Eagleton did the precise opposite …

Petraeus: I Don't Know That I Will Ever Use The Word “Victory” For Iraq  —  One of the McCain campaign's chief assaults on Barack Obama is that McCain is insisting that the troops return only after “victory” in Iraq, while Obama refuses to use that word — a position the McCain forces describe as tantamount to wanting to lose.

Figure in Rosenberg Case Admits Spying for Soviets  —  Ever since he was tried and convicted with Julius and Ethel Rosenberg on espionage charges in 1951, Morton Sobell has maintained his innocence.  —  Until now.  In an interview on Thursday, Mr. Sobell, who served nearly 19 years in Alcatraz …

The Post-Convention Roadmap to the Real Knock-Out Punch  —  The public has access to twenty-six state polls in 16 states since the GOP convention ended.  Here's a summary.  —  There are multiple polls available in six key states so far, and here are the averages using only post-convention surveys: