It's Over: Why Bill Ayers Won't Save John McCain  —  Perpetually fretting Democrats will not want to accept it.  The campaigns themselves can't afford to believe it.  Many journalists know it but can't say it.  And there will certainly be some twists and turns along the way.

Videos: The Ayers connection; Update: Obama doesn't read newspapers?  —  This morning, we have a series of videos dealing with the intersection of William Ayers, Bernardine Dohrn, and the Obamas.  Sarah Palin's accusation that Barack Obama “palled around with terrorists” …

Race gets ugly as insults start to fly  —  WASHINGTON — It's getting McNasty again.  —  A day after Sarah Palin accused Barack Obama of “palling around with terrorists,” Obama struck back Sunday with a tough ad painting John McCain as “erratic.”  —  “Our financial system is in turmoil.

Exclusive: Obama to hit McCain on Keating Five  —  Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) on Monday will launch a multimedia campaign to draw attention to the involvement of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in the “Keating Five” savings-and-loan scandal of 1989-91, which blemished McCain's public image and set him on his course as a self-styled reformer.

Palin softens ‘terrorist’ attack on Obama  —  Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin may be moving on:  —  From William Ayers, the Chicago college professor and onetime Sixties radical who has worked alongside Barack Obama in modern-day civic affairs, to the Rev. Jeremiah Wright …

McCain campaign: Keating Five investigation was ‘a political smear job’ on John McCain  —  Holy crap.  —  I'm listening to the McCain campaign conference call about John McCain's involvement in the Keating Five scandal.  McCain's lawyer just said that the Keating Five investigation was “political” as it concerned John McCain.

FIRST THOUGHTS: OBAMA AT 264  —  From Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, Domenico Montanaro, and Carrie Dann  —  *** Obama at 264: A week after Obama's poll numbers spiked in battleground states and after McCain's campaign announced it was retreating from Michigan, Obama has opened …

McCain Plans Federal Health Cuts  —  Medicare, Medicaid Spending Would Be Reduced to Offset Proposed Tax Credit  —  John McCain would pay for his health plan with major reductions to Medicare and Medicaid, a top aide said, in a move that independent analysts estimate could result in cuts …

McCain: I'm Not Raising Taxes.  I'm Cutting Medicare!  —  Barack Obama says John McCain would raise people's taxes by changing the way the IRS looks at health insurance.  McCain says he wouldn't.  —  Who's right?  —  Quite possibly McCain.  But only because he's decided to slash Medicare and Medicaid instead.