Growing Doubts on Palin Take a Toll, Poll Finds  —  A growing number of voters have concluded that Senator John McCain's running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, is not qualified to be vice president, weighing down the Republican ticket in the last days of the campaign, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.

When Consumers Capitulate  —  The long-feared capitulation of American consumers has arrived.  According to Thursday's G.D.P. report, real consumer spending fell at an annual rate of 3.1 percent in the third quarter; real spending on durable goods (stuff like cars and TVs) fell at an annual rate of 14 percent.

Cover this!  Inside the nastiest '08 rumors  —  Thank you for your e-mails!  —  When John McCain and Barack Obama started running for president in 2007, they were two of the most universally liked and respected politicians in America — men who even members of the opposite party saw as decent …

An ‘Idiot Wind’  —  John McCain's latest attempt to link Barack Obama to extremism  —  WITH THE presidential campaign clock ticking down, Sen. John McCain has suddenly discovered a new boogeyman to link to Sen. Barack Obama: a sometimes controversial but widely respected Middle East scholar named Rashid Khalidi.

And Lower...  Here we have the McCain campaign's execrable Michael Goldfarb slinging around accusations of anti-semitism—a favorite pastime, as we've seen this year, among Jewish neoconservatives.  I've never met Rashid Khalidi, but he is (a) Palestinian and therefore (b) a semite, so the charge of anti-semitism is fatuous.

Obama and the Runaway Train  —  The race, the case, a hope for grace.  —  The case for Barack Obama, in broad strokes:  —  He has within him the possibility to change the direction and tone of American foreign policy, which need changing; his rise will serve as a practical rebuke to the past five years …

A Last Push To Deregulate  —  The White House is working to enact a wide array of federal regulations, many of which would weaken government rules aimed at protecting consumers and the environment, before President Bush leaves office in January.  —  The new rules would be among …

Mortgage Plan May Aid Many and Irk Others  —  As the Treasury Department prepares a $40 billion program to help delinquent homeowners avoid foreclosure, it confronts a difficult challenge: not making the plan too tempting to people like Todd Lawrence.  —  An airline pilot who lives outside Norwich …

Hank Paulson's $125 Billion Mistake  —  It was only a few weeks ago that most right-thinking economists and left-leaning bloggers were jumping on Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson for his plan to jump-start the markets in asset-backed securities by having the government buy them up at auction.

Majority of Allegheny prostitutes are on the Democratic side  —  TRIBUNE-REVIEW  —  John McCain and Barack Obama, if you're wooing a population of registered voters who are young, female and drawn to men in suits, then Allegheny County has 675 ladies ready to pull your lever.

US election: If Iraqis could vote it would be for McCain … For five years Ali and Mohammed have lived alongside US soldiers in their Baghdad neighbourhood near Rasheed Street, a prominent commercial artery running through the heart of the Iraqi capital.  —  During that time American culture …

Exclusive: Petraeus Wants to Go to Syria; Bush Administration Says No  —  Petraeus Proposed Visiting Syria But Was Rejected By Bush Administration  —  Apparently Gen. David Petraeus does not agree with the Bush administration that the road to Damascus is a dead end.

Japanese man petitions to marry comic book wife  —  Wedding bells ... a man wants to marry a comic book character, just like Superman and Lois Lane in 1996 / Reuters  —  A JAPANESE man has enlisted hundreds of people in a campaign to allow marriages between humans and cartoon characters …

Stan Greenberg's Letter To Bill McInturff, Lead Pollster, McCain-Palin 2008  —  To: Bill McInturff, lead pollster, McCain-Palin 2008  —  Partner, Public Opinion Strategies  —  From: Stan Greenberg, Greenberg Quinlan Rosner and Democracy Corps  —  RE: STATE OF THE RACE AND BALLOT POSITION

Court Docs: GOP Donor Secretly Funneled $75K To Coleman Family  —  The CEO of a major marine technology company is alleging that he was pressured by a friend and associate of Norm Coleman to secretly funnel tens of thousands of dollars to the Senator's family.

Poll: Dead heats in 2 key swing states  —  Barack Obama and John McCain are evenly matched in the swing states of North Carolina and Missouri, though Obama is strongly outpacing McCain in two of those states' crucial battleground counties, according to new Politico/InsiderAdvantage polls.

In Final Stretch, McCain to Pour Money Into TV Ads  —  Sen. John McCain and the Republican National Committee will unleash a barrage of spending on television advertising that will allow him to keep pace with Sen. Barack Obama's ad blitz during the campaign's final days …

As a Conservative, I Must Say I Do Quite Like the Cut of this Obama Fellow's Jib  —  By T. Coddington Van Voorhees VII  —  Columnist, The National Topsider  —  Membership Chairman, The Newport Club  —  When my late father T. Coddington Van Voorhees VI founded the iconoclastic conservative …

Murtha pleas for $1 million after racism comments  —  Veteran Democratic Rep. John Murtha (Pa.) has sent out a last-minute plea for $1 million to save his hotly contested seat, endangered by his own remarks describing his district as racist.  —  In an e-mail sent to potential donors …

Obama prepares for quick transition  —  The best-kept secret in Washington is that Barack Obama has the largest and most disciplined presidential transition team anyone can recall.  Headed by John Podesta, former chief of staff in Bill Clinton's White House, it started work …

Kay Hagan Files Suit  —  103008 KRH Lawsuit - Upload a Document to Scribd  —  GREENSBORO, NC- Kay Hagan filed a lawsuit against Elizabeth Dole and the Elizabeth Dole Committee, Inc., after Dole declined to remove her new television ad, described by North Carolina newspapers as “indecent,” …

WaPo-ABC Tracking: Breaking Up Is Hard To Do  —  Sen. John McCain has made no evident headway in separating himself from President Bush in the final days of the campaign, and that connection continues to be a drag on his candidacy.  —  According to the new Washington Post-ABC News daily tracking poll …