UPDATED DAILY ENDORSEMENT TALLY: Obama Widens Lead  —  NEW YORK The Obama-Biden ticket maintains its strong lead in the race for newspaper endorsements, picking up 17 more papers in the past day, including the giant Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune on Friday afternoon (see separate story) …

McCain Acorn Fears Overblown  —  Charges of Voter Fraud Are Out of Proportion to Reality, They Say  —  Charges of potential vote fraud volleyed by Republicans, including Sen. John McCain himself, are out of proportion to reality, according to election experts.

Sarah Palin: ‘Obama loves America’  —  Sarah Palin finally met the press today, en route from Ohio to Indiana in her campaign plane.  Although she fielded questions for just several minutes, it's the first time that the Republican vice presidential nominee has sat for more than a select …

Republicans file new lawsuit against Brunner  —  Rebuffed at U.S. Supreme Court, they turn to Ohio's top court  —  Having lost before the U.S. Supreme Court in a lawsuit involving the verification of new voter registrations, Republicans now are turning to the Ohio Supreme Court.

Behind McCain, Outsider in Capital Wanting Back In  —  Cindy McCain was new to Washington and not yet 30 when she arrived at a luncheon for Congressional spouses to discover a problem with her name tag.  —  It read “Carol McCain.”  That was the well-liked wife John McCain had left to marry Cindy …

Barack Obama vows to ‘change the world’  —  Barack Obama has vowed that he will “change the world” even as he urged his supporters to guard against complacency.  —  The supremely confident demeanour and exalted rhetoric of the Democratic nominee at a New Hampshire event betrayed that he is a man convinced he is poised to make history.

For Immediate Release  —  ARLINGTON, VA - Today, Cindy McCain made available the summary pages of her most recently filed federal income tax return (2007).  This information is available on the McCain campaign's website at http://www.johnmccain.com/mccainfinanci al/.

McCain Says Obama Turned Heat on Joe the Plumber  —  MIAMI — The strange tale of Joe the Plumber unfolded a bit more on the campaign trail Friday when Senator John McCain used a rally here to defend the Ohio man he made a national star of by focusing on him in Wednesday night's presidential debate.

Some Surveys Indicate Tighter Presidential Race  —  Differences in Predicting Outcome Result From How Pollsters Gauge Voter Turnout and Weight Party Affiliation  —  A spate of widely publicized newspaper and network polls over the past week have shown Barack Obama opening a big lead over John McCain.

Obama is the choice  —  The 44th president of the United States will take office in an uncertain and dangerous time for this country.  The challenges we face both overseas and here at home are complex and unfamiliar, and the road ahead is likely to be very different from the road we have traveled to get here.

Death threat, vandalism hit ACORN after McCain comments  —  WASHINGTON — An ACORN community organizer received a death threat and the liberal activist group's Boston and Seattle offices were vandalized Thursday, reflecting mounting tensions over its role in registering 1.3 million mostly poor and minority Americans to vote next month.

Confident Dems take Senate fight into deep-red South  —  Sen. Charles Schumer and Senate Democrats are hoping to turn the tide blue in the South with a massive television advertising campaign in four southern states.  —  Democrats are on the air in the former Republican strongholds of Georgia …

Questions Linger About McCain's Prognosis After Skin Cancer  —  In May, the presidential campaign of 72-year-old cancer survivor John McCain tried to put to rest doubts about his health by allowing a few reporters to inspect his medical records, but the effort has failed to quell questions …

Palin plays the “socialist” card at Ohio rally  —  WEST CHESTER, Ohio (CNN) — It's not uncommon to hear Democrats accused of socialism at Republican campaign events.  It's less common to hear it directly from a Republican candidate — let alone the party's vice presidential nominee.

Fact Check: Would McCain make ‘drastic cuts’ in Medicare?  —  The Statement:  —  At a campaign stop Friday, October 17, in Roanoke, Virginia, Sen. Barack Obama took aim at Sen. John McCain's health care plan.  “The Wall Street Journal recently reported that it was actually worse than we thought.

‘Axis of Diesel’ forced to change its ways by plummeting oil price  —  James Bone in New York, Tony Halpin in Moscow and Michael Theodoulou in Nicosia  —  Together they form an “Axis of Diesel”.  Buoyed by petrodollars, Russia, Iran and Venezuela hectored the West as they extended their reach abroad …

New Name Pops Up In RNC Chair Race  —  Republican party insiders say that operatives close to Sen. John McCain's campaign are pushing Alec Poitevint, the former state party chairman of Georgia and a member of the Republican National Committee, to run for the RNC chairman's position.