Franken helps craft McCain ‘SNL’ skit  —  Al Franken, the former “Saturday Night Live” star now running in a high-profile Senate race in Minnesota, helped craft the opening sketch mocking John McCain that kicked off the NBC comedy show Saturday, according to two well-placed sources inside the network.

Campaigns Beef Up Economic Teams in Face of Crisis  —  On Tuesday night, as the federal government was seizing control of insurance giant AIG, Sen. Barack Obama was speeding toward a Hollywood fundraiser.  The Democratic presidential nominee had 20 minutes before he arrived …

Welcome to the final stages of the coup...  UPDATES AT BOTTOM … In 2000, the long fought for and long admired democracy of the United States of America began a slow and steady decline toward fascism - a Bush family tradition - with the installment of a president - a man the citizens overwhelmingly rejected …

A Bad Bank Rescue  —  With truly extraordinary speed, opinion has swung behind the radical idea that the government should commit hundreds of billions in taxpayer money to purchasing dud loans from banks that aren't actually insolvent.  As recently as a week ago, no public official had even mentioned this option.

Seeking a President Who Gives Goose Bumps?  So's Obama.  —  Now that he's finally fired up on the soup-line economy, Barack Obama knows he can't fade out again.  He was eager to talk privately to a Democratic ex-president who could offer more fatherly wisdom — not to mention a surreptitious smoke — and less fraternal rivalry.

The Push to ‘Otherize’ Obama  —  Here's a sad monument to the sleaziness of this presidential campaign: Almost one-third of voters “know” that Barack Obama is a Muslim or believe that he could be.  —  In short, the political campaign to transform Mr. Obama into a Muslim is succeeding.

Obama's “Got A Problem” If He Tries to Take Biden's Guns  —  CASTLEWOOD, VA — Memo to Barack Obama: don't mess with Joe Biden's guns.  —  At a fish fry for mine workers in rural Southwest Virginia, the Delaware Senator commiserated on being from coal country himself …

The incredible shrinking Obama  —  How's Barack Obama's narrative going?  —  Journalists used to tell stories, now they plumb narratives.  Narrative is a pretentious borrowing from the abstraction-clotted world of academic criticism, where texts are interrogated, authors are dead and high-toned fatuousness is king.

Hank Paulson To Dems: Not Allowing CEO's to Keep Multi-Million Dollar Salaries Is A “Poison Pill”  —  Glad to see Paulson and the Republican Party are looking after Wall Street first: … A poison pill?  The executives who drove their banks into insolvency won't let the government save …

All the Candidates' Cars  —  From the magazine issue dated Sep 29, 2008  —  When you have seven homes, that's a lot of garages to fill.  After the fuss over the number of residences owned by the two presidential nominees, NEWSWEEK looked into the candidates' cars.

Protesting Obama by Air  —  JACKSONVILLE, FL - Protesters are as common to the campaign trail as supporters - from those waving McCain signs at the entrance of events, to the more subtle passersby who flash the thumbs down gesture (or worse) along the motorcade route, to the occasional group that infiltrates and interrupts an event.

Bill Moyers & Kevin Phillips on Bad Money  —  Bill Moyers sits down with former Nixon White House strategist and political and economic critic Kevin Phillips, whose latest book BAD MONEY: RECKLESS FINANCE, FAILED POLITICS, AND THE GLOBAL CRISIS OF AMERICAN CAPITALISM explores the role …

When Atheists Attack  —  A noted provocateur rips Sarah Palin—and defends elitism.  —  Jack Dempsey / AP  —  Yes, I Can: Refusing to hesitate isn't a primordial truth of wise governance  —  From the magazine issue dated Sep 29, 2008  —  Let me confess that I was genuinely unnerved …