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 …

Obama to travel to see ill grandmother  —  WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Barack Obama will leave the campaign trail Thursday to travel to Hawaii to see his 86-year-old grandmother, who has fallen ill, spokesman Robert Gibbs said Monday.  —  “In the last few weeks her health has deteriorated …

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.

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.

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.

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 …

WaPo-ABC Daily Tracking - Release #1  —  Democrat Barack Obama enters the final two weeks of the presidential campaign holding a clear lead over Republican John McCain, aided by voters' focus on the shaky economy and by their perceptions that he is better equipped to handle those problems than his rival.

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.

Obi Wan: 'Believe me, there is someone in the Obama campaign who is deathly afraid of the ‘McCain pulls even or goes ahead’ poll.'  —  My mentor - who goes by the nickname Obi Wan Kenobi - has reappeared again, and remains generally optimistic about McCain's chances.

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.

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 …

Damn the Polls: McCain's Irreducibles Beg to Differ  —  Before John McCain and his traveling press corps entered a packed hall in Concord, N.C., for a rally on the morning of Oct. 18, local members of Congress sought to rile up the crowd.  —  Then they had to calm it down.

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 …

On Barack Obama and Colin Powell  —  First, I bet Oliver Stone wishes just now he'd tempered the General's portrayal in the disappointing W. Beyond that, though, why is there any surprise Powell would back Obama?  —  As I've been writing about for years now, contemporary progressives …