A Partisan Paper of Record  —  Today the New York Times launched its latest attack on this campaign in its capacity as an Obama advocacy organization.  Let us be clear about what this story alleges: The New York Times charges that McCain-Palin 2008 campaign manager Rick Davis was paid …

Palin gets question, looks to McCain, demurs  —  This is what happens when campaigns let reporters into photo ops.  They get all uppity and ask questions.  —  From the pool report account of what happened after McCain and Palin's meeting with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvilli and Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko:

FOX News Poll: Obama Reclaims Lead Over McCain, 45% to 39%  —  Barack Obama has recaptured the lead — 45 percent to 39 percent — over John McCain in the presidential race, according to a FOX News poll released Wednesday.  —  As majorities of each party's faithful back their party nominee …

Cell Phones and the 2008 Vote: An Update  —  Current polling in the 2008 presidential election shows a very tight race between Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain.  In part because of the strong support Obama is attracting among younger voters, and as the number of Americans …

To the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President pro tempore of the Senate:  —  As economists, we want to express to Congress our great concern for the plan proposed by Treasury Secretary Paulson to deal with the financial crisis.  We are well aware of the difficulty …

Bill Clinton cites Jewish holidays to explain delay in campaigning  —  File this one under Ya Can't Make It Up.  —  Call me crazy, but there may some Christian areas of the country that he could stump in for Obama before, after or doing the high holidays.  —  From WJC's interview with Larry King tonight:

Intrade Betting is Suspicious  —  There's something funny going on over at Intrade with respect to the pricing of the Obama and McCain contracts.  —  Right now, Obama is trading at 52.3 points.  That is, Intrade implies that he has a 52.3 percent chance to become the next President.

The Ignorance Behind the Paulson Plan  —  From The PBS News Hour on September 23: … Ludwig is one of the authors, along with Paul Volcker, of the op-ed that put the bailout proposal on the table in the first place.  —  I am sure that Henry Paulson, Ben Bernanke, and Eugene Ludwig …

Palin on Thin Ice  —  With today's kerfuffle over the media being kept away from Sarah Palin's meetings with foreign leaders — like there was a risk she'd answer their shouted questions?  — I've been mulling over Colby's post about the Hannity-Palin “100 percent pure infomercial” interview.

MCCAIN SUSPENDS CAMPAIGN TO HELP WITH BAILOUT  —  John McCain announced that he will suspend his presidential campaign on Thursday to return to Washington to help with bailout negotiations.  He urged his opponent Barack Obama to do the same.  —  The Arizona senator also asked …

PETA Urges Ben & Jerry's To Use Human Milk  —  VERMONT — People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals sent a letter to Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, cofounders of Ben & Jerry's Homemade Inc., urging them to replace cow's milk they use in their ice cream products with human breast milk …

Iraqi parliament approves provincial elections law  —  BAGHDAD - Iraq's parliament overwhelmingly approved a provincial elections law Wednesday, overcoming months of deadlock and giving a boost to U.S.-backed national reconciliation efforts.  —  U.S. officials have complained privately …

NBC/WSJ POLL: DOUBTS ABOUT PALIN  —  From NBC's Mark Murray  —  The new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll will be released at 6:30 pm ET, but here's an early look at one set of numbers:  —  Forty-nine percent say that Palin is unqualified to be president if the need arises, compared with 40 percent who say she's qualified.

McCain's gambit  —  McCain suspends his campaign, and asks to postpone Friday's debate, to address the financial crisis.  —  Both candidates have been marginal players; McCain, though, seems to have the potential to make himself a major one, and his move is a mark, most of all, that he doesn't like the way this campaign is going.

John McCain Uses Idol Makeup Artist!  —  John McCain, whose ads skewer Barack Obama for his “celebrity” status, has his own close ties to show business, the new issue of Us Weekly reports exclusively.  —  The 72-year-old was recently made TV-ready by makeup artist Tifanie White who's worked …

A STATEMENT FROM LUKE RUSSERT  —  From NBC's Luke Russert  —  Earlier this morning on the Today Show I misspoke and made what is without a doubt, quite simply a dumb comment.  —  Matt Lauer talked about UVA being a smart school and whether or not it could be considered a microcosm of Virginia at large.

It's Judgment Day for McCain  —  Last week, Republican presidential candidate John McCain called for a commission to “find out what went wrong” on Wall Street.  It was an excellent suggestion: Public inquiries into Wall Street practices served the country well in the 1930s.

Pinpoint Attacks Focus on Obama  —  STERLING HEIGHTS, Mich. — Hundreds of times in the past three weeks, cable television viewers here have been the exclusive audience for two of the roughest advertisements of the political season.  —  One links Senator Barack Obama to the former mayor of Detroit …

How Main Street Will Profit  —  Capitalism is a delicate balance between production and finance.  Today, our seemingly guaranteed living standard is threatened, much like it has been in previous recessions or, some would say, the Depression.  Finance has run amok because of oversecuritization …

Render unto Obama  —  First we had the Vero Possumus seal, and then the Barackopolis.  One might have thought that Team Obama would have learned their lesson on hubris and self-absorption, but a deal with a British firm goes even farther.  Democrats have begun striking coins with Barack Obama's profile …