Financial Russian Roulette  —  Will the U.S. financial system collapse today, or maybe over the next few days?  I don't think so — but I'm nowhere near certain.  You see, Lehman Brothers, a major investment bank, is apparently about to go under.  And nobody knows what will happen next.

It's 3am on Wall Street  —  During the primary the Clinton campaign posited the idea that a President would face a 3am call on the economy.  It looks like one of those 3am calls came this weekend as the government made the decision to let Lehman Brothers go bankrupt rather than bail the firm out.

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.

Sarah Palin and the full “Dairygate” Timeline  —  I need to thank alert reader Lee Indiana for pointing me to what is now, unfortunately, being called “Dairygate” in some circles and setting me off on a morning's expedition with The Google.  Even if you are already aware of the strange goings …

Familiar Ground May Be Election's Deciding Factor  —  When the general election began a few months ago, Barack Obama's advisers talked optimistically about dramatically redrawing the electoral map.  Their optimism remains, but as the campaign heads into its final 50 days …

Biden speech to take hard hit at McCain  —  CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Joe Biden will deliver a high-profile first attack in a sustained anti-McCain offensive in a speech called “Bush 44” Monday in the key battleground state of Michigan.  —  While the lines of attack have long been drawn …

Palin's Project List Totals $453 Million  —  McCain Campaign Says Record Shows Drop in Requests  —  Last week, Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain said his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, hadn't sought earmarks or special-interest spending from Congress, presenting her as a fiscal conservative.

Bad voter applications found  —  Clerks see fraudulent, duplicate forms from group  —  Several municipal clerks across the state are reporting fraudulent and duplicate voter registration applications, most of them from a nationwide community activist group working to help low- and moderate-income families.

Chairman Rangel  —  Mounting embarrassment for taxpayers and Congress makes it imperative that Representative Charles Rangel step aside as chairman of the Ways and Means Committee while his ethical problems are investigated.  —  This recommendation does not come easily …

Cheney Shielded Bush From Crisis  —  This is the second of two stories adapted from “Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency,” to be published Tuesday by Penguin Press.  —  Vice President Cheney convened a meeting in the Situation Room at 3 p.m. on Wednesday, March 10, 2004 …

On the stump, Obama moves past hope  —  CHICAGO — The “hopemonger” is gone.  —  Barack Obama sounds more like a man trying to shake a rain cloud these days, dispensing a teeth-clenching, I-get-your-pain stump speech in town after town that offers only snippets of the unbridled optimism that long permeated his campaign pitch.