Chicago Loses Bid for 2016 Olympic Games  —  COPENHAGEN — The International Olympic Committee delivered a stunning blow to Chicago's bid for the 2016 Olympics, knocking it out of the voting in the first round Friday, leaving Rio de Janeiro and Madrid waiting for the announcement which city will host the Games.

The Wizard of Beck  —  Let us take a trip back into history.  Not ancient history.  Recent history.  It is the winter of 2007.  The presidential primaries are approaching.  The talk jocks like Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity and the rest are over the moon about Fred Thompson.

Brown and Sarkozy rowed with Obama over Iranian nuclear announcement  —  Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy had a behind-the-scenes row with Barack Obama over last week's announcement about a secret uranium enrichment plant in Iran.  —  The President is believed to have angered the European leaders …

Bill Frist on Health Bill: I'd Vote For It  —  Or so the former Senate Republican Leader, a surgeon who has written a new book on health care, told me a few minutes ago in an interview.  —  Were he still in the Senate, “I would end up voting for it,” he said.  “As leader, I would take heat for it. ...

Mission Not Accomplished  —  Stocks are up.  Ben Bernanke says that the recession is over.  And I sense a growing willingness among movers and shakers to declare “Mission Accomplished” when it comes to fighting the slump.  It's time, I keep hearing, to shift our focus from economic stimulus to the budget deficit.

EXCLUSIVE: Media Matters confirms student at center of Fox fueled Jennings controversy was of legal age  —  For several days now conservatives in the media have been on a witch-hunt for Kevin Jennings, the U.S. Department of Education's director of the Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools.

Glenn Beck's sobbing secrets revealed: A little Vicks Vaporub gets the tears flowing  —  [YouTube here, via MisterMovies.]  —  This was too funny to pass up.  We've known all along that Glenn Beck is a two-bit phony.  Now we see how Glenn Beck gets himself properly weepy for the cameras: A little Vicks Vaporub.

Letterman creates brilliant hour of TV from woes  —  It was business as usual for David Letterman and CBS'"Late Show."  The band played.  The host, dapper as always in a well-tailored suit, recited his monologue; some jokes hit, some missed.  —  Then Letterman proceeded to take viewers …

U.S. Jews Lead Other Religious Groups in Support of Obama  —  Dip in approval among Jews similar to that among general public  —  PRINCETON, NJ — Gallup Daily tracking for the month of September found 64% of U.S. Jews approving of the job Barack Obama is doing as president …

Will 2010 Be Another 1994?  —  “Have you been in the South lately?” asks political prognosticator Charlie Cook.  “The level of anti-Obama, anti-Democratic and anti-Congress venom is extraordinary,” he says, “and with 59 Democrat-held seats in the region, 22 in or potentially in competitive districts …