EXCLUSIVE: McCain lambastes Bush years  —  ‘We just let things get completely out of hand’  —  NEWSMAKER INTERVIEW:  —  ABOARD THE STRAIGHT TALK AIR — Sen. John McCain on Wednesday blasted President Bush for building a mountain of debt for future generations, failing to pay for expanding Medicare …

WINNING THE MEDIA CAMPAIGN  —  How the Press Reported the 2008 General Election  —  The media coverage of the race for president has not so much cast Barack Obama in a favorable light as it has portrayed John McCain in a substantially negative one, according to a new study of the media since …

With $605 million already, Obama asks only $10 more from each of us  —  Having hauled in a record $208,333 every hour of every day last month — $150 million in all — plus a few more unreported millions so far this month, Barack Obama is worried that he might come up short in the political money war …

John McCain POW Footage Released  —  Footage of John McCain being interviewed as a bedridden prisoner during the Vietnam War has been released by the French national archive.  —  The video portrays the Republican as a hero but the message may be tarnished as he is filmed smoking a cigarette.

The punditocracy's Seven Biggest Blunders of the 2008 election  —  Guess what?  The Conventional Wisdom has blown it again in handicapping Obama vs. McCain in the homestretch.  —  This has been a campaign season when the conventional wisdom has fared about as well as Bob Barr's prospects for moving into the Oval Office.

$150,000 Wardrobe for Palin May Alter Tailor-Made Image  —  Sarah Palin's wardrobe joined the ranks of symbolic political excess on Wednesday, alongside John McCain's multiple houses and John Edwards's $400 haircut, as Republicans expressed fear that weeks of tailoring Ms. Palin as an average …

A glimmer of hope for GOP?  —  It's not that the tide of the race is turning.  But for Republicans anxiously scanning the headlines for any sign of promising news, a few encouraging tidbits turned up Wednesday — signs that recent rumors of the McCain campaign's demise have been premature.

William Ayers' forgotten communist manifesto: Prairie Fire  —  William Ayers is a communist.  But don't take my word for it.  He said so himself:  —  And not some nicey-nice peace-and-love kind of communist.  Through his group the Weather Underground, Ayers was planning to “seize power” …

Republicans out of Musgrave seat, too  —  Last week, Republicans were forced to make difficult financial decisions that impacted several of their top challengers.  Today, those hard choices are impacting incumbents.  —  Multiple sources with knowledge of GOP spending decisions tell …

Sorry, I Can't Find Your Name  —  Before Mississippi's March presidential primary, one county election official improperly removed more than 8,000 voters from the eligible-voter rolls, including a Republican Congressional candidate.  Fortunately, the secretary of state's office learned of the purge in time and restored the voters.

Murtha's hold on House seat slips  —  TRIBUNE-REVIEW  —  Two veteran warriors battling to represent the 12th Congressional District appear locked in the closest race in the district in years.  —  Democratic Rep. John Murtha leads retired Army Lt. Col. William Russell by a little …

Ex-ACORN worker: ‘I paid the price’ for voter registration fraud  —  SEATTLE, Washington (CNN) — Clifton Mitchell helped register nearly 2,000 voters for the community group ACORN.  But not one of them actually existed.  —  “I regret it.  I paid the price for it,” he said.

A day in the life of Palin  —  One wonders if Obama could be so resilient  —  I have a dream for Sen. Barack Obama.  —  I have a dream that one day, for just 24 hours, he could be Sarah Palin.  —  OK, maybe that's less of a dream and more a plot point from a bad Lindsay Lohan movie (redundancy alert!).

Bipartisanship and threats of war towards Iran  —  Bipartisanship and threats of war toward Iran  —  Two former Senators — conservative Democrat Chuck Robb and conservative Republican Dan Coats (that's what “bipartisan” means) — have a jointly authored Op-Ed in The Washington Post today decreeing what the U.S. must do towards Iran.

Obama lead on McCain grows to 12 points  —  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrat Barack Obama's lead over Republican rival John McCain has grown to 12 points in the U.S. presidential race, with crucial independent and women voters increasingly moving to his side, according to a Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby poll released on Thursday.

York: I Just Gave John McCain My Purple Heart  —  At John McCain's rallies these days, the talk is of taxes and Joe the Plumber and the financial crisis and mortgage relief and an end to wasteful federal spending.  Those are all perfectly fine things for a campaign to emphasize …

Murdoch Takes Issue With New Biography  —  Last year, in the gleeful afterglow of his deal for The Wall Street Journal, Rupert Murdoch agreed to cooperate with Michael Wolff, a columnist at Vanity Fair and a longtime chronicler of the media scene, for a book about Mr. Murdoch's career and family.

Why the Republicans Must Lose  —  Nothing short of defeat will put the GOP back on its limited government track  —  I grew up in a particularly conservative part of the already conservative state of Indiana.  I voted for Bob Dole in 1996 and George Bush in 2000, generally because …

Chuck Todd On McCain-Palin: No Chemistry, No Trust, Possibly No Chance  —  Commenting on a new joint interview with John McCain and Sarah Palin, NBC News Political Director Chuck Todd described the Republican ticket as lacking cohesion, chemistry, and (he hinted) trust.

WHO IS JOHN GALT?  —  We've previously noted the gusher of illegal campaign contributions flowing into the Obama campaign from contributors such as “Doodad Pro” and “Good Will.”  More recently, incidents have been reported in which people have seen credit card charges surface suggesting they donated to Barack Obama when they did not.