Troopergate report: Palin abused power  —  A legislative investigation has concluded that Gov. Sarah Palin abused her power in pushing for the firing of an Alaska state trooper who was once married to her sister.  —  The report by investigator Steve Branchflower was made public late …

McCain Denounces Pitchfork-Wavers  —  Here in Lakeville, the traveling press was pretty sure we'd see more of the kind of vicious anti-Obama attitude that's becoming a hallmark of McCain rallies of late.  —  As the town hall started, McCain was off with more pep than usual.

Palin schedules bus tour of West Virginia  —  CLEVELAND, Ohio (CNN) — In what may be another signal that the troubled economy is forcing John McCain's campaign to play electoral map defense, Sarah Palin has scheduled a bus tour for Sunday through West Virginia, a state that's been leaning red throughout this presidential race.

Obama opens a double-digit lead in new NEWSWEEK poll  —  Obama on the campaign trail in Columbus, Ohio.  —  The global financial meltdown has caused a dramatic shift in the 2008 presidential race, according to the latest NEWSWEEK poll.  With four weeks left in the presidential campaign …

Re: Complaint against Steyn dismissed  —  Mark Hemingway is right to say that free speech in Canada “does not exist in any meaningful way”.  As the British Columbia “Human Rights” Tribunal's rambling and incoherent decision makes plain, Maclean's and I were acquitted of “flagrant Islamophobia” …

Puck politics  —  The penalty box!  —  Scoopsville: Sneed is told GOP veepmate Sarah Palin will be dropping the puck for the Philadelphia Flyers home opener hockey game in Philly Saturday, and the press is being put in the penalty box!  —  “That's where they will have to stay if they want to cover it …

A Tale of Two Videos  —  This is a video from the McCain campaign called “Ayers.”  It's 90 seconds long, meant for web consumption, and it spent all of yesterday linked from The Drudge Report.  As of 10 a.m. today, it had 418,605 views.  —  Remember “the McCain-Palin mob,” the video from a liberal blogger that I linked yesterday?

Reading Incomprehension  —  Per the Times Caucus blog Sarah Paulson picked up the Washington Times story that Obama interfered with and attempted to influence Iraqi Foreign Minister Zebari while the Bush Administration was trying to negotiate the status of US forces in Iraq.

U.S. will buy stock in banks, Paulson says  —  Last time similar program was used was during the Great Depression  —  WASHINGTON - The federal government will buy stock in American banks for the first time since the Great Depression, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said Friday …

A Bit of ‘I Told You So’ Outside World Bank Talks  —  WASHINGTON — They told everyone this was going to happen, no one listened, and now see?  —  As column after column of black Lincoln Town Cars disgorged international finance officials onto the sidewalk in front of World Bank headquarters on Friday …

Question: Does Barack Obama Have Any Friends Who AREN'T Communists?  —  The news of Barack Obama's close relationship with Frank Marshall Davis has been around before, but it's important.  Via Accuracy in Media: … Aren't we seeing a pattern here?  One interaction with one old communist isn't particularly troubling.

A bit of horserace commentary  —  So I hear (via a prominent member of the sane Republican faction) that the word on the right side of the street is that the Republican National Committee is about to pull the plug on its joint ads with the McCain campaign, and devote its resources instead …