Obama's Grandmother Dies  —  CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A tragic turn of events for Sen. Barack Obama: his ailing grandmother died today.  —  Here's a statement from Obama and his sister Maya Soetoro-Ng:  —  “It is with great sadness that we announce that our grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, has died peacefully after a battle with cancer.

FOX News Poll: Obama Leads Going Into Election Day  —  Barack Obama holds a solid lead over John McCain going into Election Day — 50 percent to 43 percent — according to the final FOX News pre-election poll of likely voters.  —  FOXNews.com  —  Monday, 2008-03-308

Tampa McCain rally: Where is everybody?  —  About 30 minutes before John McCain is scheduled to lead a rally outside Raymond James Stadium, looks like there's maybe 1,000 people here.  What's up with that?  On the day before the election?  Bush drew at least 15,000 people to a rally …

CNN Wants Its Viewers to Be Misinformed  —  Steve Hayes is not what you would call a reliable source of information.  His first book, The Connection: How al Qaeda's Collaboration with Saddam Hussein Has Endangered America was a deliberate attempt to mislead the public about the subject at hand.

Hyperactive Fact-Checkers  —  I think it's probably a good thing that so many media organizations now run these “fact-check” items about political ads and rhetoric (except that it's going to confuse the next generation of magazine interns about what fact-checking is about) but one thing I've noticed is a tendency to get overly vigilant.

Keith Olbermann on McCain Campaign Giddiness: They Have “Even Less of a Clue Than I Thought.”  —  I reached Olbermann by email this morning to ask him about how it felt to be the McCain campaign's ray of sunshine.  He responded: … The McCain campaign denies Palin called an audible on complimenting Tina.

Palin: ‘Far-left wing of the Democrat Party’ could takeover  —  LAKEWOOD, Ohio (CNN) - With her voice beginning to crack on this final marathon day of campaigning, Sarah Palin promised an audience in Ohio: “We will win!”  —  “You can just feel it here,” she said at a rally in the Cleveland suburbs.

Romney Can't Bring Himself To Say That McCain Has Conducted A ‘Dignified And Honest’ Campaign  —  This morning on NBC's Today Show, host Meredith Vieira asked McCain campaign surrogate Mitt Romney about a new University of Wisconsin analysis, which found that more of McCain's ads have been negative than Obama's in the past week.

Last of the Culture Warriors  —  Why has America turned on Sarah Palin?  Obviously, her wobbly television interviews haven't helped.  Nor have the drip, drip of scandals from Alaska, which have tarnished her reformist image.  But Palin's problems run deeper, and they say something fundamental about the political age being born.

Ohio Coal Association Says Obama Remarks Make It Clear: Obama Ticket Not Supportive of Coal  —  COLUMBUS, Ohio, Nov 03, 2008 /PRNewswire—USNewswire via COMTEX/ — Mike Carey, president of the Ohio Coal Association (OCA), today issued the following statement in response to just-released remarks …

Barack Obama Answers Your Questions — Check Out The Full Interview Here!  —  For your responses, watch ‘Ask Obama’ on Monday at 9 a.m. and 7 p.m. ET on MTV.  —  MTV News sat down with Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on Saturday in Nevada, but we weren't alone.

Fox News' Major Garrett Defends Obama Against “Fox & Friends” In Leaked E-Mail  —  Fox News correspondent Major Garrett shot back in defense of Barack Obama against the network's morning show's effort to suggest that he has ignored Fox News throughout the campaign.

McCain Rally: Salter Is Smiling  —  Elizabeth Holmes reports from Blountville, Tenn., on the presidential race.  —  You know it's a big day on the McCain campaign when Mark Salter is smiling.  —  The senior aide to John McCain, known for his gruff demeanor, was practically giddy this morning on the campaign plane.

Palin On Democrats: “Do They Think The Terrorists ... Are The Good Guys?”  —  In a speech just now in Missouri, Sarah Palin unleashed some of the most ostentatious POW-POW-POWing of the campaign, and strongly implied that Dems think the “terrorists” are the “good guys.”

The Republicans' appalling attack on Rashid Khalidi.  —  On the clouded synapses of Sen. John McCain, it became clear as his campaign limped and lurched to its close, the termites had been dining long and dining well.  However much one might have admired the low comedy of his closing routine …

Penn: Democrats Must Snatch Defeat from the Jaws of Victory  —  One happy result of the way the primaries came out is that Mark Penn is writing op-eds in The Financial Times rather than advising the next President of the United States: … To just repeat what I said in response …

PALIN'S RISING STAR?  —  I know there's a lot of talk in Republican circles that Sarah Palin is going to be the star, the new face of the GOP in the post-Bush, post-McCain era.  And this speculation has been goosed by Palin's own hints that it's full speed ahead with Palinism on the national stage …

Palin campaign stonewalls on medical records  —  LAKEWOOD, Ohio (CNN) - With less than 24 hours to go before the presidential election, Sarah Palin still has not released her medical records and there is no indication the campaign is planning to do so.  —  Two weeks ago, Palin's campaign …

THE NEW POLL TAX.  —  This is why Rachel Maddow matters:  —  The poll tax was a sly system of disenfranchisement used in the Jim Crow era to disenfranchise Southern blacks.  Aware that the Constitution now assured everyone the “right” to vote, Southern states imposed a voting fee heavy enough …

The Republican Rump  —  Maybe the polls are wrong, and John McCain is about to pull off the biggest election upset in American history.  But right now the Democrats seem poised both to win the White House and to greatly expand their majorities in both houses of Congress.

In One Weekend, 1.8 million Doors Knocked For Obama  —  Inside Obama's headquarters, some call Craig Schmirer their “secret weapon.”  Here's a memo that Schirmer, as Pennsylvania state director, sent out this morning about the scope of the campaign's turnout effort there.

What Might Have Been  —  In the end this campaign could have been a clear-cut and honest choice between two world views, unapologetically expressed.  I think with McCain his conservative/centrist views and 30-year public life were pretty well known to the public.  Like it or not, the voters knew what they would get.

The Dr. Maddow Show  —  The secret to the success of a wonky lesbian pundit with no TV experience?  A Ph.D. from Oxford, a dry sense of humor, and the ability to be nice to Pat Buchanan.  —  E  —  ver heard of something called Dada?  Rachel Maddow is trying to make an analogy.