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 …

‘Always for Less Regulation’?  —  TO LISTEN to Sen. Barack Obama, Sen. John McCain is a Johnny-come-lately to the cause of regulating financial markets.  “He has consistently opposed the sorts of common-sense regulations that might have lessened the current crisis,” Mr. Obama said in New Mexico yesterday.

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.

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.

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 …

Exclusive: Obama Campaign Faith Tour Starts Next Week  —  An official with Barack Obama's campaign tells The Brody File that beginning next week the campaign will start an official faith tour in key battleground states called “Barack Obama: Faith, Family and Values Tour”.

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.

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 …

Palin Attuned More to Public Will, Less to Job's Details  —  It was three days before the legislature was to go home, and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was frustrated.  The state Senate was thwarting a reduction she wanted in the fee for business licenses.  So the governor's aides culled records …

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.

Campaign Lies, Media Double Standards  —  I NO LONGER TRUST THE MAJOR NEWSPAPERS OR TELEVISION NETWORKS TO PROVIDE CONSISTENTLY ACCURATE AND FAIR REPORTING AND ANALYSIS OF ALL THE CHARGES AND COUNTERCHARGES.  —  Some who have been admirers of John McCain think that the war hero has debased himself …

Palin Pick Puts Many Women on the Verge  —  Senator McCain's selection of Governor Palin of Alaska as his running mate, which was hailed in some quarters and met with skepticism in others, is sparking intense reactions from some New Yorkers, who report being driven to fits of rage and even all-consuming panic.

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.

Why It's Getting Mean  —  The financial crisis changes the entire shape and feel of the presidential election.  It isn't just bad news, it's bad news that reveals what many people deep down feared, and hoped not to see revealed: that the huge and sprawling financial system of Wall Street …

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.