FIRST COLIN POWELL, NOW...  Ken Adelman is a lifelong conservative Republican.  Campaigned for Goldwater, was hired by Rumsfeld at the Office of Economic Opportunity under Nixon, was assistant to Defense Secretary Rumsfeld under Ford, served as Reagan's director of arms control …

Rick Davis: Campaign Rethinking Playing The Rev. Wright Card  —  John McCain's campaign manager says he is reconsidering using Barack Obama's relationship with Reverend Jeremiah Wright as a campaign issue during the election's closing weeks.  —  In an appearance on conservative Hugh Hewitt's radio program …

From President Bush's White House team, Colin Powell hears ... nothing  —  Colin L. Powell, the former mud soldier, hurled his political grenade in defense of Barack Obama, but the collateral damage hit the Bush White House.  —  To be sure, he was opting for Obama, but the undercurrent …

CNN Poll: Race may be tightening  —  Latest CNN/ORC Poll of likely voters:  —  Barack Obama: 51 percent  —  John McCain: 46 percent  —  WASHINGTON (CNN) — With two weeks and one day until election day, a new national poll of likely voters suggests the race for the White House may be tightening up.

Biden to Supporters: “Gird Your Loins”, For the Next President “It's Like Cleaning Augean Stables”  —  ABC News' Matthew Jaffe Reports: Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., on Sunday guaranteed that if elected, Sen. Barack Obama., D-Ill., will be tested by an international crisis within his first six months …

Tires slashed during Obama rally  —  Someone slashed the tires of at least 30 vehicles parked outside the Crown Coliseum on Sunday during a rally for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, authorities said.  —  Sheriff's deputies are investigating.

ARE THEY ALL AS SLEAZY AS MCCAIN?  —  Either because of age or recent immersion in politics, a lot of readers have asked, is it really usually this bad?  Do they all get this sleazy?  As sleazy as McCain?  —  The simple answer, I think, is, No. They don't.

Murtha Calls Western Pa. ‘Redneck’  —  Congressman Says Western Pa. Was ‘Really Redneck’  —  CHARLEROI, Pa. — U.S. Rep. John Murtha is calling many of the people who put him in office “rednecks.”  —  The news comes one week after Murtha claimed the area is racist, then apologized for that comment.

King of the World Says McCain Pretty Much Giving Up on Several Battleground States  —  CNN's John King reports that the Republican team is “making tough decisions” as it sees Colorado as well as New Mexico and Iowa drift away. … Response from McCain aide Hazelbaker: “We see the race tightening both internally and in public polling.

Palin on SNL: What Did You Expect?  —  In 1998, I attended the Kennedy Center Honors in Washington.  A friend who is a lobbyist there escorted me to a weekend's worth of events.  As we moved around a brunch reception one late morning, I turned and suddenly faced Henry Kissinger.

Lorne Gunter: Thirty years of warmer temperatures go poof  —  In early September, I began noticing a string of news stories about scientists rejecting the orthodoxy on global warming.  Actually, it was more like a string of guest columns and long letters to the editor since it is hard …

Kerry's answer to the ‘boxers or briefs’ question: He goes commando and McCain would say ‘Depends’  —  CAMBRIDGE - U.S. Sen. John Kerry, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, had some choice words for the political press corps and, in particular, cable news Monday.

Poll: Obama Gained During Debates  —  CBS News/N.Y. Times Follow-Up Survey Of Likely Voters Suggests Democrat's Advantage Grew  —  (CBS) The standing of the Democratic presidential ticket of Barack Obama and Joe Biden improved during the last few weeks of the presidential campaign …

Evidence of Obama-Ayers Tie Sent Down the Memory Hole . . . Almost!  —  The best evidence that Barack Obama launched his political career from Bill Ayers's living room has disappeared . . . down the memory hole.  —  Well, not quite.  The Wayback Machine and I have both saved copies.

EXCLUSIVE: .22 Gunshot, paint balls fired at McCain / Palin Straight Talk Express  —  (Sunday, October 19 - Filed by Mark Williams in Raton, New Mexico with the Stop Obama Tour) We learned at this morning's Stop Obama Rally here that the McCain/Palin Straight Talk Express came through town yesterday.

Defending Islam at a McCain rally  —  For all the ease of picking out fairly extreme scenes at political rallies, the American News Project has a compelling moment of the reverse at a McCain event in Northern Virginia: McCain backers responding to a man who, outside a rally …

Giuliani: 'God Forbid Somebody Would Do Some Reporting On Barack Obama's Use Of Drugs'  —  On Saturday, the New York Times published an investigative piece on Cindy McCain that delved into, among other things, her past addiction to painkillers.  Responding with outrage …

MCCAIN: BROTHER, CAN YOU SPARE A RUBLE?.... Some campaigns just don't have good timing.  Today, the McCain campaign decided to cast aspersions on the Obama campaign's extraordinary fundraising success, referencing “secret donations” and “illegitimate money.”  —  Now, as a substantive matter …

The Victory Chart (Updated with new polls)  —  As I noted yesterday, Obama is easily to the brink of victory, with leads exceeding 8% in states worth 264 electoral votes.  From that point, he only needs six electoral votes to in, and five to tie.  Fully six competitive states—Colorado …

Obama pays uneasy visit to a N. Carolina barbecue joint  —  FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. — When Sen. Barack Obama entered a barbecue joint here to greet dozens of people eating lunch after church services on Sunday, Diane Fanning, 54, who works at a Sam's Club, began yelling, “Socialist, socialist, socialist — get out of here!”

Esquire Magazine Brutally Endorses Massive Democratic Majority In Senate  —  Lest any of you think I spend every day pouring through the Congressional Record and crunching Senate roll-call votes, I do have other interests and information sources and one of the non-political publications I subscribe to is Esquire magazine.

Safety in Numbers?  Poll-Driven Press Goes Out on a Limb  —  The network maps are bathed in blue, the pundits contemplating a landslide, the conservative columnists preparing for the indignities of an Obama administration.  —  With the numbers breaking Barack Obama's way …

PALIN: TROOPERGATE DOESN'T GO AWAY  —  Sometime this week, “Palin and her husband will meet this week with an investigator determining whether she violated state ethics law when firing her public safety director.  Thomas Van Flein, the attorney for both Sarah and Todd Palin …

Bear found dumped at WCU with Obama signs  —  Comments on Topix forums (click to comment):  —  CULLOWHEE - A dead bear was found dumped this morning on the Western Carolina University campus, draped with a pair of Obama campaign signs, university police said.