Palin Camp Goes To New Lengths To Shut Out Media  —  From CBS News' Scott Conroy:  —  (NEW YORK) Update: After media outlets complained to the McCain/Palin campaign about its attempt to prevent an editorial presence at Gov. Palin's first meeting of the day, a pool producer was allowed …

Biden garbles Depression history  —  Joe Biden's denunciation of his own campaign's ad to Katie Couric got so much attention last night that another odd note in the interview slipped by.  —  He was speaking about the role of the White House in a financial crisis.

Paulson: I Didn't Suggest Oversight In The Bailout Plan Because That Would Be ‘Presumptuous’  —  This morning, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson testified before the Senate Banking Committee on the current financial crisis.  Nearly every senator on the panel criticized the $700 billion bailout …

Obama and Ayers Pushed Radicalism On Schools  —  Despite having authored two autobiographies, Barack Obama has never written about his most important executive experience.  From 1995 to 1999, he led an education foundation called the Chicago Annenberg Challenge (CAC), and remained on the board until 2001.

Bush Mouthpiece Admits: They've Been Sitting on this Plan  —  Hidden in an article reporting that Cheney's going to go hunt up some support for the $700,000,000,000 bailout is this admission that the Bush Administration has been sitting on it for some time: … Which raises three questions for me:

House GOP rises up against Cheney  —  There was a time when Dick Cheney could turn back a Republican revolt on Capitol Hill.  —  That time is gone.  —  House Republicans rose up en masse against their vice president on Tuesday morning to blast an administration proposal …

Getting real — and letting the cat out of the bag  —  Whoa — it seems that Ben Bernanke ditched his prepared testimony and, instead, let the cat at least partly out of the bag. … As I wrote earlier this morning, the whole “take these assets off the balance sheets” line is fundamentally disingenuous …

Obama may scale back promises  —  Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) said in an interview aired Tuesday that the cost of the mortgage bailout plan may rein in his ambitious plans for health care, energy, education and infrastructure.  —  Obama's comments reflect the possible new constraints …

CEO murdered by mob of sacked Indian workers  —  Corporate India is in shock after a mob of sacked workers bludgeoned to death the chief executive who had dismissed them from a factory in a suburb of Delhi.  —  Lalit Kishore Choudhary, 47, the head of the Indian operations of Graziano Transmissioni …

Democrats to let offshore drilling ban expire  —  WASHINGTON - Democrats have decided to allow a quarter-century ban on drilling for oil off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts to expire next week, conceding defeat in an months-long battle with the White House and Republicans set off by $4 a gallon gasoline prices this summer.

If Ohio polling looks like Chicago, ‘thank’ Brunner  —  Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner has a reputation as the most partisan state official in Ohio.  And she works hard to earn it.  The Democrat's latest stunt rejected absentee ballots for thousands of Republicans.  —  But it's not her first rodeo.

McCain ads to air in Indiana?  [CORRECTED]  —  Two sources say McCain's ad campaign is set to extend to Indiana, a reliably Republican state where local polling has long showed Obama unexpectedly strong, and where Obama has been running a full-scale campaign.

Credit Is Not a Civil Right  —  I have no way of judging whether the Wall Street bailout is a necessary evil or an impending disaster.  But we're in this mess, ultimately, because our political elites thought it was good social policy to encourage banks to give mortgages to uncreditworthy people …

Obama Dramatically Ramping Up Overall Ad Spending; Now Outgunning McCain  —  In a sign that the Obama campaign is getting serious about tapping his financial advantage over McCain with six weeks to go, Obama's overall spending on TV ads has jumped 50% in the last two weeks …

Gallup Daily: Obama Holds 3-Point Edge  —  Voter preferences similar to averages seen in post-primaries period  —  PRINCETON, NJ — U.S. voters are closely divided in their 2008 presidential preferences, with 47% favoring Barack Obama and 44% backing John McCain.

Chris Rock To Bill Clinton: ‘Hillary Lost!’  —  As in his appearance on the View, Bill Clinton offered the most tepid support possible for Barack Obama's presidential ticket on David Letterman's Late Show last night.  After repeatedly invoking his vanquished wife Hillary …

PIGS AT THE TROUGH  —  Kos comes across this remarkable admission from White House spokesperson Tony Fratto (emphasis mine): … Who are they kidding?  Of course the Democratic proposal for limits on executive compensation only applies to firms who participate in the bailout.

McCain sends press to cabbage class  —  The 15-minute press conference John McCain is scheduled to hold at 4 p.m. this afternoon in Freeland, Mich., shouldn't be big news.  —  It is though, because it's the first the Republican candidate for president of the United States has held since August 13 …

The Establishment Lives!  —  Once, there was a financial elite in this country.  During the first two-thirds of the 20th century, middle-aged men with names like Mellon and McCloy led Wall Street firms, corporate boards and white-shoe law firms and occasionally emerged to serve in government.

Not a surrogate  —  I'd missed “The View” yesterday, but watching now, it's striking how one of the world's great's political salesman is acting as an analyst, and not a surrogate, when it comes to this race, and making no real effort to boost Obama.