PURGE: SKEPTICAL REPORTERS TOSSED OFF OBAMA PLANE  —  NY POST, DALLAS MORNING NEWS, WASHINGTON TIMES TOLD TO GET OUT... ALL 3 ENDORSED MCCAIN  —  The Obama campaign has decided to heave out three newspapers from its plane for the final days of its blitz across battleground states …

Eagleburger Blisters Palin: “Of Course” She's Not Ready  —  A former Republican Secretary of State and one of John McCain's most prominent supporters offered a stunningly frank and remarkably bleak assessment of Sarah Palin's capacity to handle the presidency should such a scenario arise.

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.

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 …

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.

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.

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.

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 …

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 …

Obama's 99% Lie  —  In an MSNBC interview yesterday, Barack Obama repeated his canard that differing judicial philosophies among Supreme Court justices don't matter in “ninety-nine percent of cases [because] the Constitution is actually going to be clear.  Ninety-nine percent of the cases …

McCain for President, Part II  —  Last week I made the open-and-shut case for John McCain: In a dangerous world entering an era of uncontrolled nuclear proliferation, the choice between the most prepared foreign policy candidate in memory vs. a novice with zero experience and the wobbliest one-world instincts is not a close call.

Rick Sanchez V. Michael Goldfarb: McCain Spokesman Wusses Out On CNN  —  Oh, dear.  Michael Goldfarb, who's clearly better off blogging about ABBA and criticizing people for playing Dungeons and Dragons, just pooped his pants on national television.  The McCain campaign is making …

Barack Obama gives Daily Show biggest ever audience  —  Barack Obama's appearance on US cable channel Comedy Central's The Daily Show with Jon Stewart pulled in the series' highest ever rating on Wednesday night.  —  Obama's interview, which aired between 11pm and 11.30pm, EST …

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 …

Attorney general's private trips have cost taxpayers $155,800  —  WASHINGTON — Attorney General Michael Mukasey has taken personal trips on government jets almost every weekend since he took office less than a year ago at a cost to taxpayers of more than $155,800, Justice Department …

Obama adding ads to GA, ND and AZ  —  COLUMBIA, Mo. - In the closing days of the contest, Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign is adding states to its advertising portfolio that were previously thought to be safe for Sen. John McCain.  —  Obama campaign manager David Plouffe told reporters …

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.

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 …

Transcript: Barack Obama talks to Rachel Maddow 5 days before election  —  The candidate discusses partisanship, ideology, U.S. infrastructure and his plan for Afghanistan  —  Obama: GOP ‘kidnapped’ by incompetent subset  —  Oct. 30: MSNBC's Rachel Maddow talks to Democratic presidential candidate Barack …

The FINAL Senate Line: The Fix Predicts  —  After two years of ranking the Senate races most likely to switch parties, we have reached the last Senate Line of the 2008 election.  (Can you believe it?)  —  Below you'll find our final rankings of the races; we've included 11 total contests …