MCCAIN STILL SEES THE FUNDAMENTALS OF THE ECONOMY AS STRONG.... The Obama campaign routinely tweaks John McCain for having argued that the “fundamentals of our economy are strong.”  Last week, the Washington Post's Jonathan Weisman criticized Obama for using the line, insisting that the quote is “months old.”

SARAH PALIN'S MURDEROUS WEB OF DEATH  —  Calling Sarah Palin a murderer might seem a stretch.  —  At first.  —  But alarmingly, Sarah Louise Heath Palin was born on February 11, 1964 - a suspicious beginning, as it is also the forty-eighth anniversary of the arrest of the free-thinking …

McCain Loses Fox News: Megyn Kelly Rips McCain Flack For Claiming Obama Would Raise Middle Class Taxes  —  On Fox News today, host Megyn Kelly called out McCain campaign spokesman Tucker Bounds for the campaign's lies about Sen. Barack Obama's (D-IL) tax proposals.

MCCAIN ADVISOR RIPS ‘SNL’ SKIT.... By now, I suspect most of you have seen the opening skit from “Saturday Night Live,” which featured a joint press conference hosted by Sarah Palin (played perfectly by Tina Fey) and Hillary Clinton (Amy Poehler).  If you missed it, and it was pretty hilarious, NBC has posted the whole thing.

OBAMA TRIED TO STALL GIS' IRAQ WITHDRAWAL  —  WHILE campaigning in public for a speedy withdrawal of US troops from Iraq, Sen. Barack Obama has tried in private to persuade Iraqi leaders to delay an agreement on a draw-down of the American military presence.

Memories Of Keating  —  As we watch yet another Republican financial crisis unfold before our very eyes, everybody needs to employ Mr Google to read up a little bit on the Keating Five scandal.  McCain was big, big pals with Charles Keating.  He spoke up for Keating with the regulators …

There Will Be Blood  —  Call it the Weekend That Changed Wall Street.  —  The upheaval of the past few days offers some lessons about the markets and how a financial crisis turns fatal.  Here are a few that I've been thinking about.  —  Lesson 1: Perception Is Everything

McCain's Crowd Numbers Plummet In Palin's Absence  —  John McCain returned to the campaign trail on Monday, only this time without his popular vice presidential pick, Sarah Palin.  The results were somewhat less than enthusiastic.  As reported by MSNBC's First Read, the Republican presidential …

Gallup Daily: Race Stabilizes With McCain Up by Two  —  Race nearly back to pre-convention period competitive status  —  PRINCETON, NJ — Voter preferences in the race for president are unchanged from where they stood over the weekend.  John McCain still edges out Barack Obama, 47% to 45% …

Joe Biden in St. Clair Shores, MI: “John McCain doesn't stand with the middle class”  —  Joe just finished giving a speech in St. Clair Shores on the case for change.  Joe spoke about McCain's campaign and the turn it has taken in this election.  He said...  Read Joe's full remarks as prepared for delivery...

Obama Rolls Out New Line of Faith Merchandise  —  God-o-Meter has learned that the Obama campaign is about to email religious supporters an annoucnement about a new line of Obama faith merchandise—bumper stickers, buttons, and signs with three different messages, featured here—along with the following note:

John McCain's Journey From Maverick to Liar  —  There is a good reason why John McCain's campaign is having some trouble with truthiness these days.  —  McCain's claim to be a “maverick” rests on the liberal positions he took during the days when he openly fought with Republican leaders and the party's conservative base.

Bloomberg agrees with McCain: Economy ‘fundamentally ... strong’  —  I just now asked the New York mayor, a former Wall Street hand who's been in the mix in the current crisis, whether he agrees with McCain that the fundamentals of the American economy are strong.

IowaPolitics: Judge and other Dems take on Palin's credentials  —  INDIANOLA — The Harkin Steak Fry is traditionally a fundraiser that acts as a stage to rally Democrats around their candidates in addition to highlighting a star of the party.  While this year's gathering did all of those things …

Atlantic Monthly Editor to Offer Apology to McCain for Photog's Doctored Pics  —  The editor of The Atlantic Monthly said Monday he is sending a letter of apology to John McCain after a woman the magazine hired to photograph the Republican presidential nominee posted manipulated pictures from the photo shoot on her Web site.

Being passed out today by Team McCain today in FL  —  Photo courtesy of Amie Parnes, on the McCain trail  —  post comment | … I love it!  Where can I get one?  —  By the way, kudos to Dan for suggesting Palin for Veep — that's the first I ever heard of her, right here in his blog posts on Politico.

Intolerance thrives in Palin's Pacific Northwest  —  Catherine McNicol Stock is chair of the history department at Connecticut College and author of “Rural Radicals: Righteous Rage in the American Grain”  —  Despite her efforts to portray herself as an average, small-town, “folksy” American …