U.S. Drafts Sweeping Plan to Fight Crisis As Turmoil Worsens in Credit Markets  —  Paulson Briefs Congress on Idea to Buy Bad Assets From Banks, Insure Money-Market Funds; Stocks Rebound Sharply  —  WASHINGTON — The federal government is working on a sweeping series of programs …

SEC Is Set to Issue Temporary Ban Against Short Selling  —  The Securities and Exchange Commission prepared an aggressive assault against short-sellers, saying it would temporarily prevent investors from making bets on stock declines in an attempt to stem some of the worst stock-market slides in years …

Where Next for the Dollar?  18 Sep 2008  —  Is the U.S. government's proposal to take on bad bank assets a good move?  Sharada Selvanathan, currency strategist at BNP Paribas gives her take on how this will affect the dollar, with CNBC's Maura Fogarty & Stephen Sedgwick.

What's on the desk  —  In a picture supplied by Sarah Palin's family to the Associated Press, Palin appears with some rather odd reading matter: The magazine of the ultraconservative John Birch Society.  —  The picture, dating to 1995, when Palin was a member of the Wasilla City Council …

AP reporter e-mails: Yeah, it's all Palin's fault  —  Just call them the Associated (With Hackers) Press.  —  A reader e-mailed AP reporter Ted Bridis yesterday after Bridis's article on the Palin e-mail hacking disclosed that the AP was refusing to cooperate with the feds and suggested that Palin was to blame for the crime.

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.

KEITH OLBERMANN: I happend to catch the very beginning of “Countdown” with Keith Olbermann.  His lead story was on John McCain's statement that if he were President he would “fire” Chris Cox as Chairman of the SEC, explaining that the Chairman of the SEC is appointed by and serves at the will of the President.

Poll: GOP brand making comeback  —  New polling suggests that the Republican Party is beginning to regain some of its luster and, perhaps as important, is experiencing a surge in excitement among its political base.  —  A new poll by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press reports …

Field Poll finds gay marriage ban trails by 17 points  —  Story appeared in MAIN NEWS section, Page A3  —  A constitutional amendment that would ban same-sex marriage in California has lost support during the past two months and now trails by a 17-point margin.

Biden's Refusal to Appear At Iran Protest Caused the Disinvitation of Palin  —  Here's the latest news on the withdrawal of the invitation to Sarah Palin (and all other politicians) to Monday's protest of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad — withdrawn by the sponsor, the Council of Presidents of Major Jewish Organization.

Obama Is Stoking Racial Antagonism  —  I understand the rough and tumble of politics.  But Barack Obama — the supposedly postpartisan, postracial candidate of hope and change — has gone where few modern candidates have gone before.  —  Mr. Obama's campaign is now trafficking in prejudice of its own making.

Todd Palin refuses to testify in probe  —  Gov. Sarah Palin's husband has refused to testify in the investigation of his wife's alleged abuse of power, and a key lawmaker said today that uncooperative witnesses are effectively sidetracking the probe until after Election Day.

President Bush goes AWOL  —  Where's George?  The president, I mean.  —  You remember him.  Dubya.  No. 43.  Won a second term a few years ago.  It was in all the papers.  —  But where has he been lately?  Where has he been during America's worst financial crisis since the Great Depression?

GOP Sees Rebound in Battle for Congress  —  Party Hopes Momentum Will Help Limit Losses  —  Like many of her Republican colleagues concerned about their reelection prospects, Sen. Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina skipped the party's national convention to focus on campaigning back home.

‘Gang of 20’ won't offer energy bill  —  A bipartisan group of senators who sought a compromise in the rancorous energy debate won't introduce their bill before lawmakers adjourn for the elections, several Senate aides said Thursday.  —  Instead, the so-called Gang of 20 will offer a statement …

Bill Clinton speaks out for Barack Obama, well, sort of  —  When we last saw the last Democratic ex-president of the United States, he was really, really getting ready to go out and campaign for this very ambitious young fellow from Illinois who with his Windy City crowd beat the ex-president's wife …

Minerals Case Decision Protested  —  The Interior Department has pulled some of its investigators off the Jack Abramoff corruption task force to protest the Justice Department's decision not to pursue charges against two government officials in the separate oil royalties scandal that surfaced last week.

Sarah Palin said yes, thanks, to a road to nowhere in Alaska  —  While seeking votes, she told Ketchikan residents she backed the ‘bridge to nowhere.’ As governor, she spent the money elsewhere and moved ahead with a $26-million road to the nonexistent bridge.

Obama campaign launching faith tour  —  Barack Obama's campaign enlisted evangelical author Donald Miller on a tour through battleground states called “Barack Obama: Faith, Family and Values Tour,” a campaign official told Christianity Today.  —  Miller, Pepperdine University professor Doug Kmiec …