McCain Plays the Race Card  —  When politicians interject race into a campaign, they seldom do it directly.  Consider McCain's new ad, which the campaign says it will be airing nationally: This is hardly subtle: Sinister images of two black men, followed by one of a vulnerable-looking elderly white woman.

Gallup Daily: Obama Now Leads McCain by 5 Points  —  At 49%, support for Obama is near his record high for the year  —  PRINCETON, NJ — Gallup Poll Daily tracking from Tuesday through Thursday finds Barack Obama with a five percentage point lead over John McCain in the presidential preferences of registered voters, 49% to 44%.

Breaking: Paulson plan could cost $1 trillion  —  Congressional leaders said after meeting Thursday evening with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke that as much as $1 trillion could be needed to avoid an imminent meltdown of the U.S. financial system.

Undermining McCain Campaign Attack, Republicans Back Obama's Version of Meeting with Iraqi Leaders  —  Earlier this week, the campaign of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., seized upon a column in the New York Post that described Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., as having urged Iraqi leaders in a private meeting …

Palin blames Dems for withdrawn rally invitation  —  BLAINE, Minn. - Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin told supporters Friday that “Democrat partisans” had pressured organizers of an anti-Iran rally in New York next week to withdraw an invitation for her to appear.

Todd Palin: ‘first dude’ or ‘shadow governor?’  —  ANCHORAGE, Alaska (CNN) — He's the man Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin affectionately calls her “first dude.”  —  Todd Palin was introduced to the nation at the Republican National Convention as a blue-collar oil worker, a laid-back father of five and a world-record-holding snowmobile racer.

Bad Math and the Bradley Effect  —  Theorem: The amount of time conservatives spend talking about the Bradley Effect is inversely proportional to the fortunes of their candidate.  —  Sean Oxendine at The Next Right purports to find evidence of a Bradley Effect in the Democratic primaries …

Palin's Collapse Continues  —  Moulitsas notes a staggering 21 point decline in a week.  More here.  On 9/11, Palin had a 52 - 35 favorable - unfavorable rating.  She now has a 42 - 46 favorable - unfavorable rating.  She went from + 17 to - 4 in a week [update now - 5] .

History Will Judge  —  WASHINGTON — For the last 150 years, most American war presidents — most notably Lincoln, Wilson, Roosevelt — have entered (or re-entered) office knowing war was looming.  Not so George Bush.  Not so the war on terror.  The 9/11 attacks literally came out of the blue.

Stephen Hadley on his boss, President Bush: ‘Remarkably unaffected by eight years’  —  For eight years, Stephen J. Hadley has observed President Bush up close.  —  As the president's national security advisor throughout the second term, and on many occasions before that as the deputy national …

Oh, That Joe!  (No. 13 in a Series) - Kicking Ohio State's A**  —  Democratic vice-presidential nominee Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., spent the past two days trying to win over Ohio voters, but he may have undermined that work in one quick dis of the Ohio State Buckeyes football team Friday morning.

Baroness Warnock: Dementia sufferers may have a ‘duty to die’  —  Elderly people suffering from dementia should consider ending their lives because they are a burden on the NHS and their families, according to the influential medical ethics expert Baroness Warnock.

Fox demands McCain camp remove Garrett from ad  —  Fox News sent a cease and desist letter to the McCain campaign today over a new ad that includes the voice of correspondent Major Garrett, according to a letter obtained by Politico.  —  From the letter sent to Trevor Potter, general counsel for the McCain campaign.

Palin's favorability trajectory  —  Al Rodgers whipped this up:  —  Worth more than 1,000 words, huh?

McCain defends retirement accounts amid stock dive  —  GREEN BAY, Wisc.  (AP) — Wall Street turmoil left John McCain scrambling to explain why the fundamentals of the U.S. economy remained strong.  It also left him defending his support for privately investing Social Security money …

Libertarian Bob Barr moves to keep Obama, McCain off Texas ballot  —  choppe@dallasnews.com  —  AUSTIN - Libertarian presidential candidate Bob Barr is forcing a legal showdown in the Texas Supreme Court to keep the names of Barack Obama and John McCain off the November ballot.

McCain repeats Palin's lie: Alaska 'provides 20 percent of America's energy requirements.'  —  In her interview with ABC News last week, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin asserted that Alaska “produces nearly 20 percent of the U.S. domestic supply of energy.”  After FactCheck.org pointed out that Alaska …

HIS STANDARD MO  —  Did John McCain just make his first edge toward that (hollow) apology that Joe Klein says he'll never accept?  —  (To be clear: Joe was referring to McCain's established pattern of engaging in sleazy or dishonest behavior knowing he can latter come back to the Washington bigs, moral hat in hand, for absolution.)

Florida, long way from Alaska  —  An interesting focus group from the St. Pete Times finds a bit of what could be called an Ed Koch effect:

Chris Cox's Terrible Idea  —  The decision by SEC Chairman Chris Cox to ban short selling is a terrible idea.  It is an encroachment on free-market principles.  In extreme, the absence of short sellers would inflate stock market upturns, probably into bubbles.  Short sellers keep the market honest.